Emotional sensitivity and resilience in emergency operators in the province of El Oro-Ecuador

Abstract

In emergency work, a person’s capacity to become sensitive to the adversity of others deteriorates due to continuous exposure to catastrophic eventualities. The objective of this research is to analyze resilience as a protective factor of emotional sensitivity in emergency work, through the application of scales, in order to establish a protective factor against the deterioration of emotional sensitivity. A sample of 42 active workers of the ECU911 System was used, 76.19% of whom were men and 23.81% women, to whom the Emotional Sensitivity Scale (ESE) was applied with three dimensions: negative egocentric sensitivity, emotional distancing and positive interpersonal sensitivity, and the Resilience Scale (ER-14) with two factors: personal competence and acceptance of oneself and life. It is evident that, despite the high levels of stress derived from the emergencies attended, there are differences in the levels of resilience and emotional sensitivity in the teleoperators; low levels of negative egocentric awareness were found, relatively high levels of resilience and positive interpersonal sensitivity, and in an intermediate position the levels of emotional distancing. It is necessary to design interventions aimed