Atatürk Health Care Vocational School, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
Work. 2022;73(4):1103-1108. doi: 10.3233/WOR-220147.
Violence against pre-hospital emergency health workers is a growing problem worldwide and negatively impacts the effectiveness of emergency services. The social distancing, isolation and quarantine measures that have been employed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have also had economic and psychosocial effects. Therefore, it is important to explore how the negative repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced these violent incidents that interfere with the work of emergency medical services (EMS).
This study aims to evaluate how violence against EMS workers has been impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study takes an interpretive social science approach, using the qualitative method of in-depth semi-structured interviewing. Audio of the interviews was recorded with the interviewee's consent. Sound recordings were transcribed and their content was categorised into themes. Categorised texts were then evaluated using descriptive analysis.
Participants reported that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they encountered more violence than usual on EMS assignments to non-emergency situations, though a sense of gratitude towards health workers at the beginning of the pandemic and positives attitudes towards health workers also contributed to reduced violence towards them. The data indicate that workplace violence among EMS employees has increased as the problems caused by the pandemic have intensified, suggesting that additional measures need to be taken to protect them.
In parallel with an increase in social violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, violence against EMS workers also increased in prevalence. A multidimensional approach should now be taken to determine how violence against EMS employees will be affected by risks such as the intergenerational transmission of social violence, a psychosocial repercussion of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially considering the increasing workplace violence among EMS employees.
针对院前急救卫生工作者的暴力行为是一个全球性的日益严重的问题，对急救服务的有效性产生负面影响。为了减少 COVID-19 的传播而采取的社交距离、隔离和检疫措施也对经济和社会心理产生了影响。因此，重要的是要探讨 COVID-19 大流行的负面后果如何影响这些干扰紧急医疗服务（EMS）工作的暴力事件。
本研究旨在评估 COVID-19 对 EMS 工作人员遭受暴力的影响。
本研究采用解释性社会科学方法，采用深入半结构化访谈的定性方法。在受访者同意的情况下，用录音设备记录访谈的音频。将录音转录，并将其内容分类为主题。然后使用描述性分析对分类文本进行评估。
参与者报告说，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，他们在非紧急情况下执行 EMS 任务时遇到的暴力事件比平时多，但大流行初期对卫生工作者的感激之情以及对卫生工作者的积极态度也有助于减少对他们的暴力行为。数据表明，随着大流行引发的问题加剧，EMS 员工的工作场所暴力有所增加，这表明需要采取额外措施来保护他们。
与 COVID-19 大流行期间社会暴力增加并行的是，针对 EMS 工作人员的暴力行为也有所增加。现在应该采取多方面的方法来确定 COVID-19 大流行的社会暴力代际传播、心理社会影响等风险将如何影响 EMS 员工的暴力行为，特别是考虑到 EMS 员工的工作场所暴力不断增加。
