Introduction
Witnessing fellow human beings’ suffering cannot go unnoticed for one’s mental health, making Emergency Medical Services (EMS) a high-risk field of practice. Most people have heard the unsettling term “burnout syndrome” at least once, but its relation to EMS workers and the possible preventive strategies should be closely examined. If nothing is done, we risk facing a shortage of qualified EMS professionals, with the shrinking workforce being insufficient to address preventable deaths effectively.
Addressing Burnout in Emergency Medical Services
Accompanied by severe emotional exhaustion, the said syndrome results from continuous exposure to stressful events, which are abundant in EMS workers’ daily experiences. From human deaths, severe injuries, and the feeling of helplessness in specific clinical cases to facing high workloads and having to make perfect decisions without much time to think—all these factors affect EMS professionals on a regular basis. EMS practitioners are the first responders to crisis events, ranging from minor injuries and road accidents to natural disasters (ALmutairi & El. Mahalli, 2020). Notably, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has undermined healthcare frontline experts’ health, resulting in burnout growth (Bardhan & Byrd, 2023). Not surprisingly, this amount of stress does not add to such professionals’ mental well-being.
Each lock must have a key, so there should be a solution to the ubiquitous burnout crisis among EMS workers. There are several ways to help EMS experts who face burnout. Employment conditions should be made more attractive for paramedics. To compensate for an enormous amount of stress, it can be pivotal to increase pay rates, ensure that shifts are not excessively long, and offer better incentives. Such efforts, as Bardhan and Byrd (2023) posit, target the insufficient work-life balance. The latter is closely intertwined with burnout development and should not be ignored.
However, is this strategy good enough in terms of cost-effectiveness? Probably not; implementing such a multifaceted approach is likely to be challenging and time-consuming, requiring many resources. For example, supplemental funding will be needed to provide increased wages and hire additional personnel to permit fewer work hours. Therefore, more achievable ways to assist EMS specialists in managing burnout must be considered.
EMS professionals’ emotions are one element in the equation of burnout that should not be ignored. Burnout reflects emotive exhaustion, which experts, including ALmutairi and El, widely acknowledge. Mahalli (2020). Thus, addressing negative emotions might have to lie at the core of an effective strategic response. Mindfulness training might be a solution to the burnout puzzle. The emotional well-being and the subsequent burnout among EMS experts can be improved by training their mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness is considered an effective burnout management technique due to increasing resilience, which is a learned process of acclimating to stress (Bardhan & Byrd, 2023; Ducar et al., 2020). By becoming more conscious of their experiences, EMS staff members may control their sentiments and react better to stressful events, thus overpowering burnout.
Conclusion
Overall, EMS experts are exposed to situations that involve resonating with the patient’s adverse feelings. This can lead to emphatic distress that occurs when a person is emotionally depleted (Ducar et al., 2020). One can argue that EMS specialists view numerous people in pain or desperation during work, and as the practitioners’ compassion reaches its limit, they undergo burnout (ALmutairi & El. Mahalli, 2020; Ducar et al., 2020). While incentives, higher salaries, and the balance between work and life obtained from less labor may be beneficial, it does not seem enough to handle what is the source of the problem. Therefore, helping the helpers overcome burnout might require teaching them to become their source of mental discipline and inner strength.
References
ALmutairi, M. N., & El. Mahalli, A. A. (2020). Burnout and coping methods among emergency medical services professionals. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 13, 271-279. Web.
Bardhan, R., & Byrd, T. (2023). Psychosocial work stress and occupational stressors in emergency medical services. Healthcare, 11(976), 1-15. Web.
Ducar, D. M., Penberthy, J. K., Schorling, J. B., Leavell, V. A., & Calland, J. F. (2020). Mindfulness for healthcare providers fosters professional quality of life and mindful attention among emergency medical technicians. Explore, 16(1), 61-68. Web.