Posttraumatisk stress bland ambulanspersonal vid en ambulansstation i mellansverige

by Mäkinen, Kristin; Mattsson, Owe

The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among ambulance personnel and the differences between proffesional groups. The aim was also to describe local guidelines for dealing with traumatic experiences. The participants answered questions wether they had recieved the opportunity to process traumatic situations and also if they experienced any peer support. During the data-gathering the instrument Impact of Event Scale was used to measure post-traumatic stress disorder. There were 65 questionnaires distributed whence 63 were answered. 29 were medical technicians and 31 were ambulance nurses. Convenience sampling was used. The results indicated that 5 % of the participants had experienced a traumatic stressreaction with certain likelihood for posttraumatic stress disorder. The responses also exposed significant differences between the proffesional groups. The medical technicians had a higher mean value concerning the avoiding statements compared to the ambulance nurses. According to the local guidelines the personnel are supposed to ventilate their experiences after beeing involved in a traumatic situation. More than half of the participants stated that they never had participated in any kind of processing. Those who considered peer-support to be existing at the workplace was about the same percentage as those who claimed the opposite. The majority group also stated situations involving children and traffic causalties as traumatic. Guidelines and routins does not seem to correspond practically as a large amount off the participants regarded them as non-existing. The procedures dealing with support after situations experienced as traumatic by the amubulance personnel, ought to be advanced.