Ambulance ramping predicts poor mental health of paramedics.

Abstract

Objective: Ambulance ramping involves a patient remaining under paramedic care until a hospital emergency department bed becomes available. This study examined whether negative ramping experiences (verbal abuse, physical abuse, compromised patient care, and patient fatality) contribute to relatively high levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in paramedics. Method: Ninety Australian paramedics (M age = 37.68, SD = 10.73; 52.2% male) completed an online survey. Results: Path analysis found that negative ramping experiences were positively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD. Interactions indicated that negative ramping experiences predicted greater depression, stress, and PTSD among paramedics with higher, but not lower, work-related self-efficacy. All interactions with resilience were nonsignificant. Conclusions: These findings suggest that policymakers should aim to reduce ambulance ramping, and that future research could fruitfully investigate the mental health benefits of training programs that include strategies to minimize paramedics' feelings of powerlessness, frustration, and self-blame, during ramping. Clinical Impact StatementThis study found that paramedics who have experienced many negative ambulance ramping experiences (verbal abuse, physical abuse, compromised patient care, and patient fatality) tend to experience relatively high levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and that paramedics with higher work-related self-efficacy are at greater risk than those with lower self-efficacy. These findings suggest that policymakers should aim to reduce ambulance ramping, and that some negative mental health effects of ramping in paramedics may be minimized by training strategies that help them to experience less powerlessness, frustration, and self-blame when ramped.

The mediating role of rumination in the alexithymia- -PTSD relation among employees of emergency services – paramedics and emergency call centre operators

“…In comparison to other professions, workers in emergency services are subject to a higher risk of experiencing potentially traumatic events while performing their professional duties. These professions include emergency call centre operators as well as paramedics [1,2]. The main tasks of an emergency call centre operator include receiving and registering reports to the emergency number (112) as well as transferring them to ser-vice dispatchers, such as the police, fire department or public medical rescue.…”

“…The goal of this research was to create a model that explores the relationships between alexithymia, ruminations, and post-traumatic stress in a group of emergency call centre operators and paramedics. These individuals, due to the nature of their professions, are often more exposed to potentially traumatic events compared to the general population [1,2].…”