Occupational hazards and diseases among workers in emergency services: a literature review with special emphasis on Chile.

BACKGROUND

Healthcare workers face the risk of accidents and illnesses related to their occupation. Psychological stress, exposure to communicable diseases and violence are perhaps the most significant ones. Workers in emergency services are more likely to be subjected to these risks than healthcare workers in other areas. This review aims to assess current international literature regarding this situation and more specifically the treatment that this issue has had in Chile.

METHODS

We based the review mainly on PubMed/MEDLINE. The general search strategy included the following keywords: health personnel, emergency medical services and occupational diseases combined with other specific words. We also reviewed the state of prevention for occupational hazards in the emergency services.

RESULTS

More than 70 studies addressing the issue of one or another occupational hazard in emergency services were detected. In Chile 12 studies refer to the issue of occupational risks in healthcare workers and at least two of them focus on emergency services.

CONCLUSIONS

The review evaluates the overall picture of the risks and illnesses of emergency services health workers but does not analyze each of the risks in depth. We recommend delving deeper into the issue of occupational hazards of emergency service healthcare workers in order to help improve and evaluate preventative measures.