Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / An Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is considered one of the most stressful work
environments. Copious literature has demonstrated that emergency service work has an
undesirable impact on the health and wellbeing of personnel. In South Africa, research
findings described that emergency services personnel are among the highest group of
professionals at risk of suffering from job-related stress. In spite of the fact, previous
studies have examined the association between critical incidents and Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms including the psychological influence of trauma, a
minority studies have explored the EMS personnel’s traumatic experiences and the
subsequent coping strategies applied. This study sought to explore and describe the lived
experiences of Emergency Medical Personnel in Capricorn District and to develop a user
led model for mitigating occupational stress among EMS personnel. The principal aim of
this study was achieved through the following objectives; to profile work related stress
and the lived experiences of EMS personnel in Capricorn District, to Identify and appraise
coping strategies employed by EMS personnel, to establish how accessible and user friendly EAP services are to EMS personnel, to determine the nature of social support
(colleagues and supervisors) EMS personnel receive and to develop a user-led model
for EMS personnel. This study was rooted in three theories, namely; trauma theory, resilience theory and the
strengths perspective theory. The three theories were appropriate in this study to offer a
perspective of situation and to analyse the situation under study to provide an
understanding into the way in which EMS personnel make sense of their situation of the
challenges they come across and make use of the available resources. The three theories
interlaced together played a critical role in this study as they both align with building
resilience, recognise individual’s innate strengths and coping in the face of hardship.
Owing to the inimitability role of the emergency personnel and the services’ work context,
the study adopted a qualitative approach. The purpose of the study was exploratory descriptive in nature. Exploring both their experience of critical incidents and the coping
strategies employed by them to mitigate work-related stress and traumatic incidents from
this qualitative perspective allowed the researcher to employ phenomenological research design for this study. A sample size of 21 emergency employees comprising 7 station
managers and 14 EMS personnel) was obtained through purposive sampling technique.
Thematic analysis was used to analyse data.
The findings suggest that life in the emergency field can possibly have an
undesirable long-term effect on employees’ overall health and welfare and higher
risk of PTSD. The distressing incidents were those in which the participants
experienced feelings of vulnerability and had no control of the situations. The study
established that emergency personnel find it most hard to deal with incidents
involving children and colleagues. Emergency personnel suffer from emotional and
physical stress owing to high job demands and repeated exposure to traumatic
incidents. Regardless of the traumatic nature of emergency work and the inimitable
role of emergency personnel, this study discovered that fact several stressors
originate from organisational failure such lack of involvement in decision-making
process, lack of training and shortage of staff. Unsupportive work environment,
Lack of personal and job resources were found to be the extensive contributory
factors to the job pressure experienced by which lead to compassion fatigue and
exhaustion. It was also discovered the current EAP programme in the Department
of Health (DoH) is not known and inaccessible to EMS personnel. The coping
strategies utilised by emergency personnel were not adequate to prevent the
aftermath of critical incidents. However collegial and social support from
supervisors were found helpful in dealing with work-related stress. The study
findings revealed that emergency personnel were unaware of the available support
services within the DoH in Capricorn District. Collectively, the findings confirm that
there is a need for an extensive marketing strategy of the EAP services and the
user-led model which will be implemented by the organisation. The researcher
recommends that EAP policies should form part of package given to new recruits
during induction or orientation programme and diverse marketing strategies should
be adopted to familiarise employees with EAP services available to them. The DoH
should consider decentralisation of EAP services to enhance accessibility.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3661 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Manganyi, Patricia Siphiwe |
| Contributors | Mabvurira, V., Makhubele, J. C. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xvii, 259 leaves |
| Relation |
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