Stressful Aspects of Work in the Emergency from the Perspective of Paramedics

Till the present-day the problems of the professional pressure have been explored above all in the field of the EMS nevertheless the inquiry in the field of urgent reception was and still is the field much less explored. In the thesis three aims were specified: To evaluate the most stressing situations of the urgent reception. To compare the stressful aspects of the paramedics at the places of urgent reception with EMS. To suggest the ways of managing stress at the urgent reception. Two inquiry questions were asked to fulfill the aims of the work: Are the paramedics working at the urgent reception able to describe stressing factors? Are the stressing situations same when working at the urgent reception and at the EMS? The inquiry was realized by the collection and analyses of the data while the collection of the data was realized by the qualitative form, by the method of semi-structured dialogues. The dialogues were led with 14 middle medical workers who worked at the position of paramedics. The choice of the workers was random, some of them worked at the urgent reception in Prague, in the Motol Teaching Hospital, in the Střešovice Central Military Hospital and in Královské Vinohrady Teaching Hospital. The questions were ranked into four areas. The first area dealt with the stressing factors and their comparison with the EMS. The respondents were asked why they find their work more difficult and in which it is easier then working at the EMS. Futher which situations they perceive as the most difficult for their psychical balance, if they face some fear in their service or if they are afraid of anything. In the second area we tried to go back with the respondents to the subsequences of the situations they experienced during their service. We traced the situations with which they feel to be influenced at the urgent reception and what kind of situations they were. The third area regarded the professional intervention. Here we found out if the respondents needed the help of the professional psychologist. Consequently if they have a psychologist at their disposal within the framework of their workplace. Lastly the respondents should express their opinion about the professional psychologist in the context of their profession. In the last forth area we dealt with the managing of stress. In this area we found out if the respondents try to cope with the stress load during their service or if they go back to such situations. Then the respondents were to answer if they have some kind of active relaxation and how often they practise this kind of relaxation. Then there was time to answer questions regarding the problems of smoking, alcohol and drugs. Thanks to the determination supported by the inquiry that the most demanding situations at the urgent reception regard death or serious health condition of a young man or a child, it was possible to state the proposion that the paramedics working at the urgent reception were able to describe the stressing factors they deal with. From the results it was also possible to state that the stressing situations at the urgent reception and EMS vary. Also it is necessary to remark that although the stressing situations and their perception vary in specific details, the perception of the demandingness of the work at the urgent reception can be subjective.The results also showed that some respondents found their work easier than working at the EMS. But the paramedics of these two subjects agreed in perceiving the most stressing situation the serious heath condition and death of young people and children. This thesis could be used in praxis to create a conception of a preventive and intervention program as an instrument of managing stress coming out of these results and the mentioned points. It would be only necessary to modify them in the area of urgent reception and in the situations which the respondents find demanding