Steven Clements, Utah Valley University
Social and Behavioral Sciences
The purpose of this study was to test the impact of having been on a dangerous call to EMS employee’s well-being. Two hypotheses were tested: First, suffering psychological symptoms from a dangerous call had no impact on their well-being; and second, suffering physical symptoms from a dangerous call had no impact on their well-being. In 2010, 7,000 state EMS employees were surveyed, yielding 668 completed surveys for this study.
Findings from the T-Test results of the first hypotheses indicated that those who had suffered psychological symptoms from a dangerous past call, when compared to those who did not, were found to have significantly worse measures in 75 percent of the areas: divorce risks; Past call stressors; adverse history; negative family life; ongoing stressors; lower life satisfaction; and overall lower sources of support. Findings from the T-Test results of the second hypotheses indicated that those who had suffered physical symptoms from a dangerous past call, when compared to those who did not, were found to have significantly worse measures in 50 percent of the areas: past call stressors; negative family life; ongoing stressors; and lower life satisfaction. After considering 38 well-being variables and having run two T-Test comparisons of means, it was found that suffering psychological symptoms from a dangerous past call is more detrimental than suffering physical symptoms.
The EMS field is innately more stressful than most other occupations. When an employee is on a dangerous call it is important to evaluate the psychological trauma they perceive to have experienced from this call and if they still suffer from it. The adverse consequences of ignoring this includes harm to their family relationships, harm from past and current stressors, harm to their job satisfaction, and harm to their overall life satisfaction.