Emotions in emergency medical services personnel: Emotional reactivity, empathy, and strategies compared to students

Abstract

Background: During emergency missions, rescue workers must often deal with emotionally stressful situations and their own reactions to human suffering. We examined rescue workers regarding their empathy and emotional reactivity, as well as strategies for emotion regulation and coping with difficult situations and correlated these with chronic experiences of stress. They were compared to a sample of students who had no medical experience. Methods: Stress, empathy, emotion regulation and coping strategies were assessed using questionnaires. Emotional reactivity was investigated experimentally with standardized images that evoke disgust, sadness, fear, or joy, which were rated on a multilevel scale from pleasant to unpleasant. Results: Rescue workers (n = 161) experienced less stress, were less empathetic, and used strategies for emotion regulation and coping less or similarly to students (n = 56). They also found disgusting and sad images less unpleasant. More reactivity to disgusting images, more empathy, emotion suppression, and avoidant coping strategies were associated with more stress. Conclusion: A decreased, but not low empathy can be helpful for emotional shielding during an emergency mission, while afterwards an active examination of one’s own emotions and the critical incidents appears protective against stress.