GENDER AND AGE AS VARIA BLES IMPACTING STRESS LEVEL AND STRATEGIES OF DEALING WITH IT BY PARAMEDICS

Abstract

Introduction: Stress is present in every part of human life. It can be encountered especially among people, who due to the nature of their jobs, have to make quick and adequate decisions. The profession that can be included in this group is paramedic. The aim: To analyse the level of stress and strategies of dealing with it among paramedics taking into account gender and age of the sample group. Material and methods: The sample size consisted of 120 paramedics working for Emergency Medical Service. The survey was carried out from May to October 2017. The participation was voluntary and anonymous. As an estimate of tested parameters PSS-10 test was used to assess level of stress and mini-COPE test to assess strategies of dealing with stress. The analysis was carried out using STATISTICA 12 software. Results: 49 women took part in the survey, who consisted of 40.83% of the whole sample size. Statistical analysis showed significant correlation between the level of stress and gender. Women were more impacted by stress in their job. The most popular strategy of dealing with stress for both genders were undertaking actions and planning. Statistically significant difference was shown for 5 strategies: seeking emotional and instrumental support, denial, stopping actions as well as blaming yourself and all of them were more frequently chosen by women. Age was not a significant factor in terms of level of stress encountered, however played important role in strategies undertaken to deal with stress which was blaming yourself. Conclusions: Stress in paramedics’ job is a key issue. Choosing appropriate strategy of dealing with stress by paramedics can help them to keep optimal level of stress at work and it should be used in motivating and effective way.