Should working for ambulance services carry a government health warning?

Threats and violence to ambulance staff while at work are a recurrent problem and this research investigates the incidence and nature of these events.

A questionnaire comprising 44 questions was distributed to 170 ambulance personnel in Sweden. The response rate was 79% (134/170): 49 paramedics and 84 ambulance nurses; 85 males and 48 females (one respondent did not identify their sex or role).

Findings indicate that during the 12 months prior to the study, 26% of staff (35/134) had experienced threats and 16% (21/132) were physically assaulted whilst attending emergency calls. There was no difference in risk for being exposed to threats/violence on the basis of professional group or sex.

The nature of the threats varied from contacting the media (n=26) or reporting frontline staff to management (n=30), through to threats of physical violence (n=79) or even death-threats (n=22).

In total, 56 respondents (42%) had experienced acts of violence such as being pushed, bitten or beaten, and 12 staff (21%) required medical attention after the assault.