Nursing Programme, Faculty of Medicine, UniKL RCMP, No. 20, Seri Sutera B 2, Bandar Seri Botani, 31350 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Nursing Programme, Faculty of Medicine, UniKL RCMP, No. 20, Seri Sutera B 2, Bandar Seri Botani, 31350 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Chin J Traumatol. 2021 Jul;24(4):237-248. doi: 10.1016/j.cjtee.2021.04.002. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
Malaysian disaster relief volunteers have a long and proud history of participating in relief missions within and outside the country. Despite of a plethora of researches into the various areas of disaster relief, there has been a little scholarly activity looking into the experiences of the medical volunteers worldwide and even less research on the experiences of the relief volunteers in Malaysia. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the effect of disaster relief works on volunteers in Malaysia.
This is a non-experimental cross-sectional design study, which was conducted using survey questionnaire to examine the incidence of burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and the quality of life (QOL) among the disaster relief volunteers. And the study also examined the socio-demographic variables of the participants. In addition, the association between the sociodemographic variable and the preferred coping strategies was also investigated through self-reporting checklist.
The findings of this study revealed that 90.9% volunteers (n = 312) experienced some levels of recurring stress throughout their lives, which led to burnout. Also, 96.8% (n = 332) of the participants were categorized as having at least some symptoms of PTSD. However, self-reporting QOL measurements indicated that the participants are, in general, satisfied with their lives. Significant associations between the incidence of burnout, incidence of PTSD and QOL were identified. Both positive coping measures and behavioral or avoidant coping measures were also identified. Furthermore, a number of socio-demographic factors were also seen to interact significantly with burnout, PTSD and QOL.
This study provides some insights into the psychological challenges of disaster relief volunteers in Malaysia, and this impact can last a long time after the volunteers return to their hometowns. Several recommendations including practice development, policy and research were discussed in the study.
马来西亚灾难救援志愿者在国内外参与救援任务有着悠久而自豪的历史。尽管有大量研究涉及灾难救援的各个领域，但很少有学术活动关注全球医疗志愿者的经验，更不用说关注马来西亚救援志愿者的经验了。因此，本研究的目的是确定灾难救援工作对马来西亚志愿者的影响。
这是一项非实验性的横断面设计研究，采用问卷调查的方式，调查马来西亚灾难救援志愿者的倦怠、创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状和生活质量（QOL）的发生率。研究还检查了参与者的社会人口统计学变量。此外，还通过自我报告清单调查了社会人口统计学变量与首选应对策略之间的关系。
本研究的结果表明，90.9%的志愿者（n=312）在其一生中经历了不同程度的反复压力，导致倦怠。此外，96.8%（n=332）的参与者被归类为至少有一些 PTSD 症状。然而，自我报告的 QOL 测量表明，参与者总体上对自己的生活感到满意。确定了倦怠、创伤后应激障碍和 QOL 的发生率之间存在显著关联。还确定了积极应对措施和行为或回避应对措施。此外，还发现一些社会人口统计学因素与倦怠、创伤后应激障碍和 QOL 显著相互作用。
本研究提供了一些关于马来西亚灾难救援志愿者所面临的心理挑战的见解，并且这些影响在志愿者返回家乡后很长一段时间内仍然存在。研究中讨论了包括实践发展、政策和研究在内的几项建议。
