To assess the religious spirituality of EMSpersonnel and their perception of the spiritualneeds of ambulance patients.

Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) andparamedics presenting to an urban, academicemergency department (ED) were asked to complete athree-part survey relating to demographics,personal practices, and perceived patient needs.Their responses were compared to those ofambulance patients presenting to an ED during aprevious study period and administered a similarsurvey.

A total of 143 EMTs and 89 paramedics returnedthe surveys. There were 161 (69.4%) male and 71(30.6%) female respondents with a median age rangeof 26–35 years old. Eighty-seven percent believedin God, 82% practiced prayer or meditation, 62%attended religious services occasionally, 55%belonged to a religious organization, 39% feltthat their beliefs affected their job, and 18%regularly read religious material. This wassimilar to the characteristics of ambulancepatients.

However, only 43% felt that occasionallyambulance patients presented with spiritualconcerns and 78% reported never or rarelydiscussing spiritual issues with patients.Contrastingly, >40% of ambulance patientsreported spiritual needs or concerns at the timeof ED presentation, and >50% wanted theirproviders to discuss their beliefs. Twenty-sixpercent of respondents reported praying ormeditating with patients, while 50% reportedpraying or meditating for patients.

Females were no more religious or spiritual thanmales, but were more likely to engage in prayerwith (OR = 2.38, p = 0.0049) orfor (OR = 6.45, p <0.0001)patients than their male counterparts.

EMTs and paramedics did not perceive spiritualconcerns as often as reported by ambulancepatients, nor did they commonly inquire about thereligious/spiritual needs of patients.