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Retrospectively exploring the importance of items in the decision to leave the emergency medical services (EMS) profession and their relationships to life satisfaction after leaving EMS and likelihood of returning to EMS.

An exit survey was returned by a sample of 127 respondents in fully compensated positions who left the EMS profession, most within 12 months prior to filling out the exit survey. A very high percentage continued to work after leaving EMS. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of each of 17 items in affecting their decision to leave EMS. A higher than anticipated response to a "not applicable" response choice affected the usability of 8 of these items. Nine of the 17 items had at least 65 useable responses and were used for further analysis. Within these 9, stress/burnout and lack of job challenges had the highest importance in affecting the decision to leave EMS, while desire for better pay and benefits had the lowest importance. Desire for career change was positively related to life satisfaction after leaving EMS and negatively related to likelihood of returning to EMS. Stress/burnout was positively related to life satisfaction after leaving EMS. Study limitations and future research issues are briefly discussed.