Being a first responder is an innately stressful job. Day in\nand day out we are exposed to the full spectrum of human emotion: from\nassisting in bringing new life into the world, to watching one leave the next\ncall. Add on the stress of intense workloads, risk of personal harm or injury,\ncritical life or death decisions, and time spent away from our families; and it\nis no wonder the average career length for an EMT or Paramedic is only 5 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two of the most common stress responses seen in first\nresponders are burnout and post-traumatic stress. Burnout is described as\nfeeling completely overwhelmed or exhausted. Post-traumatic stress is a\ncondition resulting from exposure to a traumatic event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some signs of burnout may include becoming easily\nfrustrated, irritability, indifference, isolation, and exhaustion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some signs of post-traumatic stress may include hypervigilance,\nisolation, hostility, irritability, flashbacks, fear, and extreme anxiety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what can we do to reduce the stress and lengthen the\ncareer lifespan of Paramedics and EMTs? First of all, one of the most important\nsteps is to normalize the discussion. Too long in this career field we have\nwalked around with the \u201ctough it up attitude.\u201d It is natural to talk about\nthings that bring about a stress response, and it is one of the most important\nsteps in recovery. It is recommended, furthermore, to have this discussion\namongst peers who might have been in similar situations. Another step to reduce\nstress is to set boundaries and say no. Doing so will help us manage a\nmagnitude of problems that face us as first responders, such as long hours and\nsleep deprivation. It is equally important to have a balanced work and home\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an EMS responder of 11 years, I understand some of these\nthings are easier said than done. The leaders in the EMS community set an\nexample. Don\u2019t eat the young. Don\u2019t normalize the \u201cthis is what you signed up\nfor mentality.\u201d Take care of yourself as best you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because if you can\u2019t save yourself, how are you going to be\nable to save anyone else?<\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being a first responder is an innately stressful job. Day in and day out we are exposed to the full spectrum of human emotion: from assisting in bringing new life into the world, to watching one leave the next call. Add on the stress of intense workloads, risk of personal...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28,53,86,90],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paramedic","tag-burnout","tag-first-responder","tag-post-traumatic-stress","tag-stress-response"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/emsmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/89501341_s.jpg?fit=679%2C705&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emsmatters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}