To What Extent Does Shift Work Contribute to the Stress of Working as a Paramedic in Adelaide - Essay Example

To What Extent Does Shift Work Contribute to the Stress of Working as a Paramedic in Adelaide?Method Section1. Who are you?I am a 26 year old Islamic male currently studying medicine in the university and I am in my final year. 2. Which names approach will you use?The approach I will use in this research is field research. Using this approach, I will be making observations of the paramedics in their work environment and the different shifts, how long the shifts are and the amount of work they perform in each of these shifts and what observable stress they are encountering when working.

I will also interview them on the issue of their shifts and the stress resulting from the shift work.3. How will you access participants?I will get the paramedics in the hospitals and in their work stations where I will interview them. I can also access them when working in order to observe them in their natural working environment and get the feeling of what stress they are encountering as they work in their different shifts (both night and day shifts and the difference between these two shifts).4. What sampling approaches will you use?

The sampling technique will be simple random. This is convenient because I will not be biased when conducting the field research and the results will ensure diversity in conditions, gender of the paramedics and other important factors that other sampling techniques may overlook. I will randomly choose the work stations of the paramedics and then also randomly chose the paramedics I will be observing and those I will be interviewing and minimize biasness and sampling error.5. What data will you collect and how many?

I will carry out 3 observations (of each shift since the shifts are of 8hours), 7 different interviews (one of the interviews will be for the supervisor and who is also the one in charge of the shifts and organizes the duty calendar), while the other six will be for the different paramedics (randomly chosen). Lastly I will carry out a focus group discussion that will include all the available paramedics and this will be aimed at getting the general feeling about the shifts not captured in the interviews.

Some of the structured interview questions will include: what shift they currently are in? How long does it take before there is a rotation of the shift? Which of the three shifts is the toughest on both the physical and mental strength? Is there a difference health wise of the shifts (this includes having headaches, fatigue, anger, over or under eating, depression or drugs and substance abuse). The rest of the questions will be unstructured in order to get more explanations.6. Any ethical issues/ problems you can foresee?

One of the ethical problems I foresee is that the interviewees may refuse to be honest due to fear of lack of confidentiality and even anonymity even though this will be assured to them. The other is on the issue of getting voluntary participants to participate in the focus group and especially if the supervisor will be around watching them. Explaining to them beforehand the ethical code of conduct governing researchers including assurance of confidentiality, getting informed consent and not forcing anyone to participate without their free will is going to take care of these ethical problems.7. Profile tableThis is the framework of the table I will use to record the findings of the 7 interviews I will be conducting and it will provide results at a glance without having to go through the literature on the methodology and findings.

NameGenderAgeEducationJob title/positionTime in the organizationCurrent shift (morning, afternoon, night)1.2.3.4.5.6.7.ReferenceBurch, J., Tom, J., Zhai, Y., Criswell, L., Leo, E. and Ogoussan K. (2009). “Shiftwork impacts and adaptation among health care workers.” Oxford Journals: Occupational Medicine, 59(3), 159-166.Courtney, J. A., Francis, A. P. and Paxton, S. J. (2010). “Caring for the country, fatigue and mental health in Australian rural paramedic shiftworkers.” Journal of Community Health, 38(1), 178-186.

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” Chronobiology International, 21(6), 859-870.Sofianopoulos, S. Williams, B. Archer, F. (2010). “Paramedics and the effects of shift work on sleep: a literature review.” Emergency Medicine Journal, 29:152-155.Sofianopoulos, S. Williams, B. Thompson, B. Archer, F. (2011). “The exploration of physical fatigue, sleep and depression in paramedics: a pilot study.” Journal of Primary Emergency Health Care, 9(1).