A shooting incident in an elementary school: Effects of worker stress on public safety, mental health, and medical personnel

Abstract

The effects of impact of event and five categories of worker stress were studied with 140 police, fire, medical, and mental health personnel who were involved in emergency service work following a shooting in an elementary school. A questionnaire distributed 6 months after the incident was utilized. Public safety personnel reported a recollection of significantly fewer intrusive thoughts than medical and mental health professionals immediately following the incident. Groups did not differ in intrusive or avoidance scores on the Impact of Event Scale 6 months after the event and all groups showed a significant decrease in both scores over time. Stepwise linear regression showed that a self-reported qualitatively heavy work load predicted intrusiveness and avoidance of thoughts both immediately after and at the 6-month anniversary of the incident. Additionally, time pressure and quantitatively heavy work load also predicted avoidance score at the time of the incident. Results are discussed in terms of control models of anxiety and as foci for debriefing with affected personnel.

Social and occupational factors associated with psychological distress and disorder among disaster responders: a systematic review

“…Not being able to predict or control events, as well as feeling a lack of control over the nature and extent of victim injuries, were associated with post-traumatic stress in fire-fighters [ 42 ]. Other job-related predictors of poor mental health outcomes included: longer assignments, increased time with child clients, working with fire-fighters, and clients who discussed morbid material, for disaster mental health workers [ 25 ]; and qualitatively heavy workload for emergency service personnel [ 106 ].…”

Sources and Assessment of Occupational Stress in the Police

“…Given the very special role played by the police in society, it is important for authorities in charge of maintenance and development of the police service to give serious consideration to alternative strategies of work redesign and organizational changes 21,22) . Recent research [23][24][25] has shown that shift work has one of the most important impacts on psychological outcomes for policemen and may interact with traumatic experiences. In our study, shift work has not been identified as an important factor associated with occupational stress.…”

Secondary traumatic stress effects of working with survivors of criminal victimization

“…In determining aspects of STS, Sloan, Rozensky, Kaplan, and Saunders ( 1994) proposed to explore the stressors of traumatic stimuli, work environment, time pressure, and qualitative and quantitative workload medical, mental health, and public safety professionals following a shooting at an elementary school. The results indicated public safety personnel reported less intrusive thoughts than the other two groups immediately following the shooting, which the authors stated may or may not be due to some form of denial.…”