Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the return to work experiences of police officers after a musculoskeletal injury in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Design: Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used, which draws on phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography with a focus on understanding meaning of a given phenomenon from the individuals perspective. Semistructured interviews were undertaken and data analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis process.
Setting: Policing within Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Participants: Eligibility criteria were deployable staff who become temporarily undeployable due to a musculoskeletal injury within selected districts and has completed a return to work program within the last 6 months to 5-year period (as of September 2021). Purposive sampling was used, recruiting officers with a recent return to work experience after a musculoskeletal injury. Six police officers were recruited (men, 4; women, 2). One participant identified as Māori; the rest identified as NZ European. The sample included perspectives from 2 large urban police stations, 2 small urban police stations, and 2 small rural police stations.
Main Outcome Measures: The Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis process was used to analyze data and processes were in place to ensure validity and rigor throughout the analysis process.
Results: Results identified 4 main themes from participants accounts: Return to Work is a Mystery, Making Sense of the Ghetto, Good Rehabilitation Looks Like Valuing the Person, and Questioning Belonging to the Police “Family.”
Conclusions: Analysis of interviews revealed that being on a return to work program has a profound impact on injured officers’ identity, in part due to challenges arising from the police culture and rehabilitation processes. Expert vocational rehabilitation practitioners are an important resource in the rehabilitation context. Existing inequalities within the police organization, such as differential treatment of women and minimal attention to cultural needs, are exacerbated by the internal return to work process of the police service.
Oral presentation.