Effective teamwork plays a crucial role in emergency medical services in enhancing patient safety. However, the possible impact of staff gender on communication patterns, patient safety outcomes, and overall team performance has rarely been considered. This study seeks to investigate these largely neglected aspects. An anonymous descriptive survey was conducted via an online questionnaire distributed to emergency physicians and paramedics. Respondents were asked to share their views on teamwork, communication, patient safety, and error management.
A total of 714 prehospital professionals from various regions across Germany joined the study. Overall, 65.7% of female participants reported having harmed a patient (men: 72.9%), while 52.6% felt ashamed after committing mistakes (men: 31.7%). Only 19.0% of the women assessed their communication skills as very good, compared with 81% of the men. A larger proportion of women than men avoided speaking openly about errors out of fear of seeming incompetent (28.4% versus 15.5%). Both male and female respondents cited their colleagues’ personalities as a major factor in ineffective team communication (women: 89.4%; men: 84.9%). During periods of intense stress, communication frequency decreased (women: 35.9%; men: 31.0%) and statements often became imprecise (women: 18.7%; men: 20.1%). Issues related to team communication and collaboration in emergency rescue services do not appear to be influenced by gender. Female staff seem to struggle more with openly discussing mistakes, possibly because they face higher expectations. Emergency service organizations should modify their working arrangements to better suit women’s needs, thereby supporting improved error handling. Overall, cultivating a culture of constructive error and communication is vital to raising patient safety standards.
