Mental Health for EMS Providers

Mental Health for EMS Providers  essay assignment

Mental Health for EMS Providers essay assignment

Abstract:

Working as a paramedic exposes individuals to the risk of witnessing life-threatening circumstances and other traumatizing experiences.  Such events may result in symptoms of stress that affect the functioning of the paramedics. This is a well-known problem, but it is usually underestimated. This research aims to identify stress factors among paramedics and implement a new program to overcome stress and maximize the functioning of emergency management services.

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Literature Review:

Paramedics face unimaginable circumstances on a daily basis in most lines of their work. Typically, their type of work involves dealing with individual that are going through critical times and sometimes the most frightening experiences of their lives. Since they are a crucial part of first responders, paramedics are forced to make decisions and actions that have the potential of saving lives and minimizing injuries (Maguire & Smith, 2013). In so doing, they encounter the pressure of making a quick and accurate assessment during emergencies. In addition, paramedics are required to deal with the reality that patients will always die regardless of the actions they take. (Maguire & Smith, 2013). These factors among others related to their work environment can have inherent occupational stress, which can significantly influence their physical and emotional health. Stress in this perspective refers to the response of the body to mental, physical, or emotional situations, changes, and forces due to external factors such as work environment or from internal factors such as attitudes (LeBlanc et al., 2012). In a pilot study examining the risk factors for stress in paramedics, Rybojad et al., (2016) found that 40 percent of paramedics showed signs of stress. The majority of these paramedics were working under an employer’s contract as opposed to being self-employed with persons with higher levels of education exhibiting stress less frequently. In another research Fjeldheim et al., (2014), found that 94 percent of paramedic trainees experience trauma and 16 percent meet symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The research also found a high rate of depression (28%) with 23% of the paramedics engaging in alcohol abuse and 7 percent showing signs of chronic perceived stress (Fjeldheim et al., 2014).Therefore, this research will assess the influence of work environment on the stress factors, burnout among Saudi Arabian paramedics and implement a new program to reduce stress.

Research questions \ Objectives:

1. What are the major stress factors affecting paramedics working in the Saudi Arabian Red Crescent?
2. What is the effect of stress, and burnout on the paramedics decision making.
3. How does the Saudi Arabian Red Crescent help its paramedic deal with work stress?
4. Implement a new protocol to aid paramedics overcome work-related stress and measure the outcome.

 

Methodology:

In this case, the study design will be conducted as qualitative descriptive research. The research could be conducted in three different steps. Firstly, the paramedics stress factors will be conducted by collecting and analyzing data relating to it. The data will be collected using a survey. Secondly, all the data regards Red Crescent management dealing with their workers stress will be conducted from supervisors and managers. Thirdly, the main part of this research is to implement a new program that helps paramedics overcome their stress. Paramedics with stress symptoms will be interviewed after going through the program to collect data. The data will be analyzed for the final result.

Significance:

Identifying the major stress factors is the key toward reducing stress among paramedics. I think, this research will help in improving the paramedics health both mentally which will help eventually in providing high quality patients care.  The new protocol will address their issues and provide solutions based on the paramedic situation. For example, reducing work load for two months, changing the shift, or visiting a psychologist, etc..  I think there will be a positive result from using a new protocol that can be generalized and used by many EMS system.

References:

Fjeldheim, C., Nöthling, J., Pretorius, K., Basson, M., Ganasen, K., & Heneke, R. et al. (2014). Trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder and the effect of explanatory variables in paramedic trainees. BMC Emergency Medicine, 14(1), 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-227x-14-11

 

LeBlanc, V., Regehr, C., Tavares, W., Scott, A., MacDonald, R., & King, K. (2012). The Impact of Stress on Paramedic Performance During Simulated Critical Events. Prehospital And Disaster Medicine, 27(04), 369-374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049023x12001021

 

Maguire, B., & Smith, S. (2013). Injuries and Fatalities among Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics in the United States. Prehospital And Disaster Medicine, 28(04), 376-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049023x13003555

Rybojad, B., Aftyka, A., Baran, M., & Rzońca, P. (2016). Risk Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Polish Paramedics: A Pilot Study. The Journal Of Emergency Medicine, 50(2), 270-276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2015.06.030