Trauma among Rescue Workers: Do Coping Strategies Moderate the Relationship between Traumas, Burnout and Life Satisfaction among Ambulance Personnel?

Abstract

Emergency service employees and especially the ones working in ambulances frequently face with traumatic events related with work. As a result of that the personnel employed as ambulance paramedics and staff are prone to experience stress and bum-out symptoms related with the work related trauma. In this research the impacts of the traumatic events which ambulance personnel witnessed were investigeted with relationship to employee bum-out and general life satisfaction. In addition to that the moderating role of coping stragies in these relations was also taken into consideration. According to the results of the analyses it revealed that the hyperarousal dimension of the (IES-R) significantly related with the emotional exhaustion dimension of bum-out. In addition to that a negative relationship was found between intrusion and depersonalization. Unfortunately the moderating role of coping strategies on the relationship among traumatic experiences impact, bum-out and life satisfaction can not be supported for this sample. Nevertheless when the results of the study is generally considered, it can be concluded that the ambulance personnel working in Istanbul frequently encounter with traumatic events and likely to experience burn-out syndrome, hence necessary precautions to prevent their psychological health can be an improvement for increasing employee wellbeing and emergency service quality.