Psychophysiological parameters of railway power dispatchers as working efficiency criteria

Abstract

Introduction. Determining the professional performance, endurance and stress resistance of power dispatchers who manage all power supply devices on the railway is one of the essential aspects of ensuring train safety.The aim of the study is to determine the criteria for professional performance, endurance and the probability of developing professional stress by analyzing the psychophysiological parameters of railway power dispatchers.Materials and methods. Psychophysiological studies were conducted to assess stress resistance; emotional stability; attention stability; attention switching; interference stability, attention distribution, and overall functional status in 63 energy dispatchers (40 men and 23 women; average age 40.6±10.68 years, experience 13.4±1.25 years).Results. Based on the degree of intellectual, sensory, emotional and regime loads, according to the degree of labor intensity, the labor activity of energy dispatchers can be classified as class 3.2. It is shown that these psychophysiological parameters are the most significant for professional activity and allow an adequate assessment of their performance and professional fitness. In the absence of a significant dependence of the parameters of attention distribution, attention stability, reflecting the characteristics of mental fatigue and stability, on the age, length of service and gender of energy dispatchers, some gender features were identified for other indicators. Women were found to have a slightly higher noise immunity compared to men, apparently due to the predominance of excitatory processes over inhibitory ones, with greater stability and balance of excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system in men. This was accompanied by less emotional and stress resistance of female energy dispatchers, which may be a criterion for earlier development of professional stress in women. Additionally, an express test to assess the functional state also showed deeper manifestations of professional stress in female energy dispatchers,which may affect the quality of their professional activities.Conclusions. The high adequacy and resolution of the applied set of methods for assessing the performance of dispatchers and early detection of manifestations of occupational stress is shown, and gender differences in the manifestations of the latter require further development of additional measures to prevent health disorders and increase the productivity of women energy dispatchers.