IRB Number

25-0724-067

Date of Award

Winter 1-26-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

First Advisor

Michelle McCraney, Ed.D

Second Advisor

Kathy Wood, Ph.D

Abstract

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) profession faces numerous challenges in maintaining sufficient capacity to provide frontline medical care amid increasing demand for its services from government officials and the public. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the experiences of EMS professionals on how the lack of executive leadership education impacts their careers and the viability of their organizations. The problem is that EMS professionals widely lack the executive-level leadership education needed to thrive in their professional careers and ensure the viability of their EMS organizations (Basnawi, 2023; Naidoo et al., 2015). The research questions are developed as open-ended inquiries to support robust responses from semi-structured interviews of purposively selected EMS professionals working in the State of Connecticut. This study will use two research questions. The first is, what are emergency medical services (EMS) instructors' experiences of incorporating executive-level leadership education in the EMS initial and refresher curriculum? The second question is, how do emergency medical services (EMS) professionals experience and perceive the impact of a lack of executive-level leadership education has on their careers and organizations? In professions similar to EMS that regularly make life-or-death decisions, such as the military, firefighting, and law enforcement, executive-level leadership education is required for promotion into positions that broaden organizational authority. This study identifies a gap in the delivery of executive-level leadership education tailored to the unique operating environment of EMS personnel. This study examines how executive-level leadership education in EMS can positively impact the EMS workforce and business operations.

Keywords: Executive leadership, leadership, emergency medical services, pre-hospital care, frontline medical care

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