Occupational stressors among ambulance and rescue service workers

An exploratory, quantitative study was conducted to identify the range of occupational stressors that occurs among ambulance and rescue service workers in South Africa. A total of 20 employees from four occupational levels of an ambulance and rescue service located in a South African coastal city were interviewed. The contents of these interviews were subjected to qualitative data analysis within the conceptual framework of an interactive model of stress. A range of negative stressors was identified. Despite the presence of some unique individual, intergroup and extra-organizational stressors, the most striking finding was the level of negativity accorded by the respondents to organization-based stressors. These findings have important implications for the structure and functioning of ambulance and rescue services, as well as for stress intervention and prevention programmes for workers in these services.