Paramedic emotional labour during COVID-19

Abstract

Emotional preparedness is required for emergency paramedic practice. Emotional labour underpins the role of paramedics at the frontline of patient care. During the COVID-19 pandemic where patients are at their most vulnerable, it is imperative that paramedics can offer both reassurance to parents and be empowered in the face of the virus. Dealing with COVID-19 has put stress on paramedics, for whom psychological wellbeing is imperative to their capacity to cope in exceptionally challenging circumstances, where death has so frequently characterised the most severe cases of the virus.

Emotional Labor and Burnout of Public Health Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Effects of Perceived Health Status and Perceived Organizational Support

“…Public health centers are basic but core institutions within the public healthcare network, while public health nurses (PHNs) provide primary healthcare services to community residents for disease prevention and health promotion [ 1 ]. However, during the global pandemic crisis, PHNs have faced a sharp increase in their workload for infection control and dealing with complaints [ 2 ], screening [ 3 ], as well as added work for cohort isolation, contact tracing, and self-isolation training; vaccination; and follow-up actions for adverse symptoms after vaccination [ 4 ]. Accordingly, PHNs are suffering from physical and mental fatigue and burnout due to increased workload, emergency shifts, task shifting, and role changes caused by the pandemic [ 5 ].…”

Let's talk about our feelings: Emotional labour of community practice in times of pandemic

“…Surveying literatures on other caring professions, we found a small handful of articles that considered the emotional labour of frontline practitioners in times of pandemic. For example, Hayes et al (2020) call for more awareness to the emotional labour of paramedics during Covid-19. As this example illustrates, the works on emotional labour in different professional settings during Covid-19 often do not provide empirical evidence on the issue.…”

Slaugytojų Emocinė Ir Psichinė Būsena Covid-19 Pandemijos Metu

“…Viena iš tokių profesinės veiklos rūšių priskiriama slaugytojams [ 2 ] . Teigiama, kad emocinis pasirengimas nėra naujas reiškinys skubiosios pagalbos sveikatos priežiūros personalui visame pasaulyje [9], tačiau COVID-19 atsiradimas ir greitas pasaulinis išplitimas neabejotinai turėjo įtakos žmogaus emocijoms ir distresui [6,8,10]. Šiuo laikotarpiu slaugytojai dirba ypač sudėtingomis sąlygomis, kasdien susidurdami su įvairiomis nestandartinėmis situacijomis, nauja, greito įsisavinimo reikalinga informacija, pasikeitusiomis darbo sąlygomis bei padidėjusiu darbo krūviu.…”