Influence of the workplace on the feeling of safety among emergency medical personnel in selected European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic is still a real threat to global public health. Medical personnel face new, previously unencountered challenges, and their feel¬ing of physical and psychological safety is under threat. The aim of the paper is to examine the differences in the feeling of safety among emergency medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected European countries. Material and methods: The study group consisted of 1984 people working in the emergency medical services in seven countries. The research tool was a proprietary internet questionnaire, which prior to commencement of the research was validated using the Mc-Donald test, achieving a result of > 0.7, which underlines a satisfactory level of reliability. In the statistical analysis, a significance level of p = 0.05 was adopted. Analysis of the quantitative variables, presented by division into groups, was conducted using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The choice of tests was conducted on the basis of the distribution of variables, verified by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the feeling of safety among employees of the emergency medical services and the feeling of danger to health and life as a result of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus was varied and depended on the job position. Principles for observing the sanitary regulations and the level of fear of infection are at a similar level and depend on place of work. Conclusions: Those most at risk from a lack of safety are emergency medical response teams.