Expression of Physical Risks Experienced by Ambulance and Emergency Department Nurses

Abstract

Relevance of the study: Emergency medical response workers, both: nurses in ambulance and in the emergency ward, encounter by far the most occupational hazards than any other kind of medical staff. Emergency medical care workers, especially nurses, are often confronted with a variety of occupational hazards due to the specific nature of their work, and the environment they work at resulting in physical disability of unidentified workers. Long hours of work, heavy workload, rush and recklessness, and many other risk factors that will be mentioned in this research can lead to serious injury or illness. These factors can determine the effectiveness of the nurse's work, the quality of patient care or safety, life and work satisfaction. Aim of the study: To reveal physical risks experienced by ambulance and emergency department nurses. The objectives: To analyze scientific literature related with physical risk factors. To reveal physical risk factors which are experienced by ambulance nurses. To reveal physical risk factors which are experienced by emergency room nurses. To compare physical risk factors experienced by ambulance and emergency room nurses. Research methods: Foreign countries scientific literature analysis, with non-probabilistic purposive sampling X nurses who work in 2nd level hospital emergency department and Y nurses who work in ambulance were questioned. Survey was accomplished by using written semi- structured questionnaire. Results were calculated with excel program. Conclusions: Long working hours, heavy physical workload, poor ergonomics, rush, recklessness lead to physical risk factors for emergency medical response nurses. Biggest risk factors for ambulances nurses are risk of falls, risk of neck and leg injuries, risk of needle stick injuries from used needles and risk of accidents in high speed ambulances. Noise from patients and patient relatives increases the risk of additional stress for nurses working in emergency department. Emergency department nurses have poor ergonomics and heavy workload which causes falls and leg injuries. Nurses working in emergency services has higher risk of sleeping disorders, neck and leg injuries and falls than nurses working in emergency department while nurses in emergency department has higher risk of additional stress from noise by patients and patients’ relatives. And risks of needle stick injuries are similar but high in both nurses working in emergency department and nurses working in ambulance services.