Back to Search
Start Over
Impact of combat events on first responders: experiences of the armed conflict in Uruzgan, Afghanistan.
- Source :
-
Injury [Injury] 2015 May; Vol. 46 (5), pp. 863-9. Date of Electronic Publication: 2014 Dec 16. - Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Introduction: Care for battle casualties demands special skills from medics, nurses, and tactical commanders. To date, no inventory has been performed evaluating the first responders (medics, nurses and tactical commanders) around battle casualties.<br />Method: This observational cohort study was conducted amongst the first responders (n=195) who were deployed to Southern Afghanistan (2009-2010) in three Marine companies. The survey focused on four main topics: (1) participants general background, (2) exposure to combat (casualty) situations, (3) self-perceived quality of care (1 [low]-10 [high]) in the pre-hospital phase, and (4) the effects of combat stressors on professional skills and social environment using the Post Deployment Reintegration Scale (PDRS) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R).<br />Results: 71% of the eligible Dutch tactical commanders, medics, and nurses participated in this survey. Most (14/16) medics and nurses scored their pre-deployment training as sufficient The overall self-perceived quality of care score was above average (7.8). Most (80%) of the participants were exposed to battle casualties. There were no significant differences regarding rank, gender, age and military task using the impact of event scale and PDRS, except for a worse score on the work negative, family positive and personal positive subscales (p<0.05) in the PDRS for the first responders in comparison to the armed forces norm score.<br />Conclusion: The quality of care in the pre-hospital phase was considered adequate, symptoms of post-traumatic stress in this group was low. Active involvement of co-combatants and the social support network are essential in adaption after exposure to combat events. Further research is necessary to identity predisposing preventable high stress factors, and to compose a "waterproof" aftercare programme.<br /> (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Subjects :
- Adult
Afghan Campaign 2001-
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Netherlands epidemiology
Quality of Health Care
Surveys and Questionnaires
Triage
Wounds and Injuries therapy
Emergency Medical Technicians psychology
Military Medicine
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic epidemiology
Wounds and Injuries epidemiology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1879-0267
- Volume :
- 46
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Injury
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 25548112
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2014.12.012