Physiological synchrony, stress and communication of paramedic trainees during emergency response training

Abstract

Paramedics play a critical role in society and face many high stress situations in their day-to-day work. Long-term unmanaged stress can result in mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Physiological synchrony - the unconscious, dynamic linking of physiological responses such as electrodermal activity (EDA) - have been linked to stress and team coordination. In this preliminary analysis, we examined the relationship between EDA synchrony, perceived stress and communication between paramedic trainee pairs during in-situ simulation training. Our initial results indicated a correlation between high physiological synchrony and social coordination and group processes. Moreover, communication between paramedic dyads was inversely related to physiological synchrony, i.e., communication increased during low synchrony segments of the interaction and decreased during high synchrony segments.