Telling stories out of school: Experiencing the paramedic's oral traditions and role dissonance

Lazarsfeld-Jensen, Ann

doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2014.10.001

Cited by 22 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Universities would be able to use the motivations of students for marketing purposes to attract and retain suitable students whose expectations are more aligned to paramedic practice. Advertising could focus on educating individuals about the reality of both course content and employment in an attempt to reduce the discrepancy between student expectations and the reality (13). This could greatly benefit universities by reducing student attrition rates, and also foster career longevity (11,14).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Motivates Students to Pursue a Career in Paramedicine?

Ross

Hannah

Huizen

2016

Australasian Journal of Paramedicine

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IntroductionThis study aimed to determine the motivations behind students’ decisions to enrol in a degree in emergency health (paramedic) or double degree emergency health (paramedic) and nursing.MethodsStudents were surveyed to determine the importance of different motivations influencing their decision to enrol in their current university course.ResultsThere were 168 surveys returned from 182 students (93% response rate). The most important motivations for students were ‘wanting to help people’, ‘saving lives’ and ‘exciting career’. Older respondents rated ‘giving back to the community’, ‘wearing a uniform’, ‘employment prospects’, ‘pay rate’ and ‘job security’ slightly higher. Males considered ‘pay rate’, ‘working environment’ and ‘job security’ slightly more important than females.ConclusionsFindings suggest that like other health professional students, those studying paramedicine do so for intrinsic motives including ‘wanting to help people’, ‘saving lives’ and an ‘exciting career’.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Motivates Students to Pursue a Career in Paramedicine?

Ross

Hannah

Huizen

2016

Australasian Journal of Paramedicine

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“…Concurrently, paramedics are increasingly subjected to threats from patients or bystanders, with a majority of EMS personnel, between 57 to 93%, having reportedly encountered physical and verbal abuse in their work during the last decade [ 5 , 6 ]. The continuous imbalance of high-intensity and psychologically demanding assignments with more mundane, low-acuity experiences can affect paramedics’ professional quality of life [ 7 , 8 ] as they often feel emotionally affected by patient encounters, which manifests in symptoms of traumatic stress [ 9 , 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stressors increasing the risk of secondary trauma, both STS and BO, derive from feelings of hopelessness, associated commonly with paramedics’ assignment experiences involving, among others, death and drug overdoses [ 9 , 16 ], as well as a sense of powerlessness in helping others in need, prevalent in cases of social distress [ 10 , 17 ]. In addition, paramedics’ repeated non-acute encounters might cause professional role dissonance, in comparison to the more historical profile of paramedics as critical life-savers [ 7 ], with potential implications on paramedics’ compassion satisfaction (CS). CS is referred to as an emphatic engagement and rewarding pleasure of helping others, functioning thus as a balance against the negative effects stemming from CF [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finnish paramedics’ professional quality of life and associations with assignment experiences and defusing use – a cross-sectional study

et al. 2021

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Background Paramedics experience traumatic events and social emergencies during assignments while also being subjected to verbal and physical threats. Consequently, they are at risk for burnout and secondary traumatic stress, factors inherent to professional quality of life. Defusing and peer-support potentially decrease such symptoms; however, perceived defusing needs and use are not always balanced. Our aim was to explore Finnish paramedics’ professional quality of life, using the Professional Quality of Life Scale, with associations to EMS assignment experiences as well as formal and informal defusing need and use over a 12-month period. Methods A quantitative study of 257 Finnish paramedics using a cross-sectional design. Study outcomes were secondary traumatic stress (STS), compassion satisfaction (CS), and burnout (BO) scores using the modified 9-item Short Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOL). Likert-type scales were used to collect participants’ recollections of assignment experiences and defusing from a 12-month period. Associations were explored using Spearman’s correlation coefficients. Results Short ProQOL score medians were STS 4.00 (IQR 3), BO 6.00 (IQR 3) and CS 13.00 (IQR 3). STS and BO correlated to experiences of social emergencies and traumatic events while BO correlated to experiences of threat situations (r = 0.206, p = .001). Paramedics perceived a need for defusing in general associated with STS (r = 0.178, p < .001) and participated in informal defusing. Participation in defusing of any form did not associate with ProQOL scores. Conclusions Finnish paramedics’ more frequent experiences of social emergencies, traumatic events, and paramedic-directed threat situations were associated with higher levels of STS and BO. STS was also associated with paramedics’ increased need for defusing and use of informal peer defusing, although neither STS, BO or CS scores associated to any defusing form. Managing paramedics STS and BO, while fostering CS, could therefore be a future research focus.

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“…13,14 In this review, a paramedic was defined as a qualified clinician on an emergency ambulance team, responding to medical and traumatic cases, providing assessment, treatment and transportation. 15 In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, paramedics are required to complete a three-year undergraduate degree program. [9][10][11]13 This incorporates a combination of lectures and tutorials teaching anatomy, physiology, ethics, medical law, mental health and communication skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%