Our Goals & Objectives
|
We recognize that paramedics regularly experience stress not common to the general population. Paramedics have been identified as high risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma-related symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and emotional numbness, among others. It has been demonstrated that between one fourth and one third of paramedics show traumatic stress symptoms in the high to severe range at any given time. In addition, resulting somatic outcomes, such as pain, are more numerous and frequent compared to those reported by other occupations and the general public at large. Although paramedics play a critical role in pre-hospital care, turn-over rates due to burnout are high, indicating a need to better understand the unique stressors experienced by this population.
Unfortunately, paramedics remain understudied. Very little is known about the impact of these unique stressors and how they are dealt with on a daily basis. We are attempting to gain a broader scope of information about the unique forms of stress experienced by paramedics and their families. We are also interested in understanding how paramedics cope with this stress across home and work settings. One of the primary foci of the current study is how work stress faced by paramedics might impact not only the individual paramedic, but also his/her spouse at home and partner at work. In order to investigate this, we are interested in gathering information from paramedics who are currently living with a spouse or romantic partner who would also like to participate. If work partners are also interested in participating, we will gladly include them as well. We apologize if any of our eligibility criteria excludes you, and hope that you will consider participating in a future project. If you have suggestions, please let us know. We value the thoughts and opinions of all participants and interested parties.
|
 |
Other questions to be answered:
• Which daily stressors have the greatest impact on paramedics and their significant others? |
These are just some of the many questions that will be answered by this study.
Your participation and cooperation would provide valuable information about the stress regularly experienced by paramedics and their spouses.
|
We recognize paramedics as a population which is at high risk for stress-related health outcomes, but which is understudied and underrepresented in the scientific literature. This study will provide a better understanding of how working in pre-hospital care affects a number of important outcomes, including post-traumatic stress, burnout, and job satisfaction. These are key factors in the retention of emergency health care providers.
Knowledge transfer is a key goal of this study, and we will do all that we can to ensure that appropriate public organizations have access to the summarized findings. Results from this study will also be presented at relevant academic conferences and published in academic journals. This will further aid in recognizing paramedics as a high-stress population and generate additional research in this area. All participating paramedics and spouses of paramedics will be provided with a summary of the study findings following completion of the project. |
|
Centre for Health & Coping Studies Department of Psychology 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Tel: 604-822-4729 |
 |