Post-traumatic stress disorder among ambulance personnel: a review of the literature

It is becoming increasingly apparent that ambulance personnel are vulnerable to developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated symptoms. The aim of this literature review is to identify PTSD within the scope of emergency ambulance work and think of potential ways to reduce it.

To begin to source the information required for the literature review Boolean search terms were used. The terms used include: ambulance and stress, paramedic and mental health, post-traumatic stress, and treatment. A range of academic databases included in the search were EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychoINFO, PsycoMED and various journals of stress management via Discovery. As the literature is focused on the ambulance service, specific databases such as the Joint Royal College Ambulance Liaison Committee (JRCALC), the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC), Journal of Paramedic Practice, College of Paramedics and North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) intranet were also included in the search. On a broader spectrum, Google scholar, World Health Organization (WHO), NHS evidence, the Cochrane Collaboration, and European Resuscitation Council were included, along with books on PTSD and stress management. From this extensive literature searching a total of 56 documents were found, 25 were based around ambulance work, 7 included police, military and the fire service, 5 on chronic PTSD and 19 papers discussing management, treatment and preventative measure surrounding PTSD. There appeared to be minimal information on the targeted area of ambulance personnel with regard to PTSD or symptoms. The main focus of PTSD gravitated around the military, victims of rape and those involved with major disasters such as earthquakes, flooding or terrorist attacks. Following the literature search there were less than 10 specific papers on the topic of ambulance-related work, paramedics, emergency medical technicians and PTSD.