Assessment of Stress in Medical Emergency Staff in Ardabil Province, Iran

Occupational stress is a chronic disease, which is caused by harsh working conditions, and affects individual performance and physical and mental health. This study aimed to determine the level of occupational stress in medical emergency staff in Ardabil province. In this descriptive analytical study, 103 persons of the emergency stations of Ardabil province in 2011, were studied in terms of stress level by convenience sampling.Data collection tool was a two-part questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data (the first part) and Harry’s stress questionnaire (the second part). After collection, the Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, and ANOVA. Most of research units, i.e., 77 (74.8%) had the mean stress score of between 150-250, which was indicative of stress in them, and 4 subjects (3.9%) had scores higher than 250, which indicated severe stress. These results show that medical emergency staff has high stress during emergency medicine care. Considering that the medical emergency and prehospital emergency medical personnel are an important part of health staff that save lives, and also that stress is an important cause of development and exacerbation of burnout, therefore, a proper management system for facilitating and removing the risks of occupational stress and measures to prevent the consequences, are necessary.