Work conditions and experiences of emergency medical services personnel in the department of Health in two Provinces, South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore and determine whether Emergency Medical Services personnel are vulnerable to stress and to what extent. What the study also wanted to determine is whether the affecters contribute to the development of stress vulnerability in the EMS setting in the South African context. The study further aimed at coming up with recommendations for the Department of Health to alleviate the burden that stress vulnerability has on services in the two provinces and with a possibility of extending this to other provinces in the country. In this study work conditions, experience and the environment within which EMS personnel operates were explored. The extent to which these conditions, experiences and environment impact or affect the lives of EMS personnel was also examined. The likelihood that impact or influences might cause vulnerability to stress among EMS personnel were also investigated. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of work conditions and experiences of Emergency Medical Services personnel and how this can lead to stress vulnerability in the Department of Health in Gauteng and North West Provinces. There are four objectives in the study that were explored and they are: (1) To describe the relationship between work conditions, work experiences and the stress vulnerability among EMS personnel, (2) To determine the stress vulnerability among EMS personnel and how this affects their lives, (3) To explore how stress vulnerability affect gender, ethnicity, different age groups differently, and (4) To devise methods and tools to be used to alleviate stress vulnerability in the EMS employee’s workplace and to address the current situation. From above objective it is clear that there is very little if no knowledge of the existence of the vulnerability to stress in the EMS environment. The study employed the stratified random sampling technique. It was chosen above all other techniques because it is the best suited method for this study. The other reason that led to the method being chosen was that the EMS population was divided in strata consisting of age, gender, years of service, ethnicity, location, etc. The study was also quantitative and qualitative in approach simply because there were open ended questions that were meant for a specific group of the sample and there were closed ended questions meant for the other group of participants. Further to this descriptive analysis techniques were used to analyze the data collected. The population of EMS personnel within the two provinces Gauteng and North West Province is N2,349 and the derived sample was 501, though the sample size that was required was n470. All the 501 questionnaires collected were usable. The primary method used for collecting data was questionnaires. The data is presented using both tables and graphs as well as discussion of the results. The data analysis tool that was used is the SPSS software v 20 and with the help of a statistician. The study revealed that EMS employees are somewhat exposed to stress vulnerability within Gauteng and North West Provinces. This loosely translates that EMS personnel are exposed to affecters that render EMS personnel in the country vulnerable to the development of stress. The findings also conclude that stress vulnerability is not related in any way to gender, age, ethnicity and area of operation as suggested by the hypotheses. This suggests that all EMS employees regardless of their background and characteristics are exposed to the development stress vulnerability as they are equally exposed to affecters and might yield the same results across the different areas of operation. It is very clear that EMS employees seek assistance to deal with stress in one way or the other to ensure that their emotional wellbeing is looked after to render ready to handle the next patient. In conclusion, based on the results of the study stress vulnerability exists within the EMS environment. It is not related in any way to age, gender, race or qualification levels. It is believed that the affecters that EMS personnel are exposed to, affect any employee as long as they work operationally and this is part of their everyday duties. It is further believed that no one level of qualification is better than the other with relation to exposure to development of stress vulnerability for as long as employees are exposed to the same eaffecters. According to the study there were six recommendations made but not necessarily limited to: (1) the need to conduct further research on areas that did not stand out; (2) the employment and appointment of psychologists to ensure that there are regular screening and debriefing of EMS