Taking Safety Science to the Streets

March 18, 2025

How your department can improve burnout, mental health, and job satisfaction with FOCUS

By Victoria Gallogly

It’s no secret that firefighting is a hazardous job that can lead to injuries, near-misses, and line-of-duty deaths. Not to mention, the high-stress nature of first response can have negative impacts relating to burnout, job satisfaction, work engagement, and mental health. Fire and rescue departments are always on the hunt for solutions to these problems that affect first responders. Department leaders can implement a top-down approach to addressing these issues by taking a look at their organizational safety climate.

Safety climate is a snapshot of safety culture – that is, members’ overall perceptions of safety. Safety climate has known associations with those key metrics, like injuries, mental health, and other organizational outcomes. But you can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s where the Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) survey comes in, providing an evidence-based approach to understanding and improving safety climate.

Small Beginnings

The FOCUS survey is a tool developed by the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) at Drexel University. It is specifically for the United States fire and rescue service to measure the safety climate of a department. Prior to FOCUS, there was no industry-specific safety climate scale for the fire and rescue service. Through a beta-test phase, FIRST collaborated with 12 departments and 123 firefighters across the nation to develop scale items. Then, the items were validated through a national sample of 132 career, combination, and volunteer departments and 10,000 firefighters from all 10 FEMA regions.

From Research to Practice

To date, the FOCUS survey has been taken by almost 600 fire departments and over 70,000 firefighters in all 50 states across multiple waves of survey deployment. Now, in its fifth wave, the FOCUS 3.0 instrument collects data at the department- and station-level to provide a snapshot of safety climate, with an emphasis on combination and volunteer department participation. A 30-page final report is provided to participating departments that can be used to help them lead with data to secure gear, staffing, apparatus, and behavioral health resources.

FIRST Associate Director, Alex Fisher, MPH, CHES, leading an in-person Culture Camp in Tukwila, WA (October 2023)

Learning the FOCUS Fundamentals

After completing the no-cost, FEMA-funded assessment, department leaders and labor unions are invited to a free Culture Camp training to develop confidence with their data and skills to use it to become champions of safety culture. These two-day trainings teach participants about the design of the survey; how FOCUS data is gathered; and how to analyze, interpret, and use the data. Culture Camps are led by a fire and rescue service member, FIRST Center staff, and affiliate faculty in the field of organizational science who have deep knowledge of safety culture solutions.

Developing Practical Skills

Each camp includes between 5 and 10 departments and 10 and 20 participants. The culminating experience is a Data Teach Back performed by each department’s leadership team. Participants practice presenting their data to stakeholders like city council, risk management, workers’ compensation, and department members. Instructors provide constructive feedback to make sure data is presented accurately, and other participating departments offer their practical suggestions and advice. Based on demand, FOCUS Culture Camp evolved from an in-person experience to an online hybrid training that includes asynchronous lectures and interactive live Data Teach Back sessions.

Take It from Your Fellow Brothers and Sisters

To date, over 250 firefighters from 140 departments have graduated from FOCUS Culture Camp. Participants enjoy the comradery and support that is built throughout the experience. “After attending the course, I could feel the bond between everyone,” said one participant. “Being able to see and hear everyone’s passion and commitment to change told me I was in the right place.”

Lead with Data

If you want to understand your department’s safety culture and lead with data on important issues, enroll in the FOCUS survey today! Your final report and the opportunity to participate in Culture Camp will give you the tools you need to move the needle on safety in your organization.

Victoria Gallogly is the outreach and communications manager for the FIRST Center at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. For more information, contact her at vhg25@drexel.edu.