Managing menstruation while working in the Australasian ambulance service environment

Ambulance service workplace demographic has become more feminized, therefore female-specific issues must be included in workforce planning, policies, and procedures. Ambulance personnel who menstruate, including women, trans, and non-binary paramedics who menstruate as well as undergraduate paramedicine students attending clinical placement, may face additional difficulties when managing their menstruation in the workplace. Research on menstrual health amongst individuals working in the ambulance service environment is limited, prompting this investigation into how those – ambulance service personnel or undergraduate paramedicine students - who menstruate, manage their menstrual cycle while performing workplace duties or completing clinical placements in the emergency ambulance [health] service workplace environment. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate, describe, and measure the impacts and experiences of people who menstruate while working for Australasian ambulance services. Participants in this study completed an anonymous online survey about their menstrual cycle and effects on their workplace performance. Results indicate those who menstruate whilst working in an ambulance environment are adversely impacted by their menstruation. This psychological safety, and health and wellbeing issue requires addressing both in research and workforce policy for the ambulance industry. The findings and discussion are informed by Foucauldian analyses of disciplinary power to illustrate how organizational practices regulate, normalize, and produce gendered bodies, determining the conditions under which they are either rendered invisible or made visible. As paramedicine continues to grow as a profession, and diversify, it is imperative that bodily difference is not treated as a private inconvenience but as a legitimate consideration of organizational responsibility. Addressing menstrual inequity is a matter of workplace gendered practices, dignity, wellbeing, justice, and basic human rights. The researchers recommend the ambulance industry/paramedic profession moves towards open discussions, education of the workforce, and the instigation of supportive workplace practices that have a positive impact on people who menstruate while working in the ambulance service environment.