Impact of Stress on Paramedic - Essay Example

            When under stress, it is said that physical manifestations occur, and such manifestations affect the health of the person under stress. According to the paramedic respondents, emotional imbalances were translated physically and affected mostly their sleep patterns and eating habits. These responses, which were gathered through a type of post-modern ethnography or auto-ethnography, collaborate well with the concept that stress affects the health of the afflicted person. First-hand accounts of experiencing nightmares, lack of appetite, stomachaches, and disturbed sleep fall under the category of low impacts of stress.

            However, aside from the low impacts of stress, there are manifestations that can severely affect the life of the person under stress. According to studies, stress can impact not only the person experiencing it but the people around as well. This data is supported by the interview results that state how these paramedics experience deteriorating job performances, being prone to sicknesses and injuries, and sometimes even paranoid thoughts that affect the individual's family members.

How Does Theory Explain Your Findings?

            These findings can be further explained by the old adage by Albert Einstein that “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” While physical manifestations of stress, and probably the length of time these manifestations are experienced, can be counted, it would not address the “whys,” the “whats,” and the “hows” of the research. This, therefore, shows that there are specific studies that can benefit from qualitative research, particularly from ethnographic ones.

            Furthermore, the responses gathered through random sampling ensured that bias is non-existent, or at least limited. Furthermore, according to the literature, ethical standards should be maintained at all times in conducting researches. In conducting this ethnographic study, informing the respondents that a high-level of ethics will be maintained by discussing with them the purpose of the interview (for informed consent) and protecting their identity allowed them to feel freer in answering the interview questions. Such freedom in answering provided helpful data that collaborated with the existing studies on stress among paramedics.

            One-on-one interviews also allowed the possibility of probing the real-life experiences of these people regarding stress. Due to the sensitivity of some information disclosed by the paramedics, the respondents' knowledge that their identity will be protected removed any hesitation in retelling stories of injuries experienced, family issues that arose, endangered positions in jobs, and even mental instability they went through during these stress-filled periods. With the importance of the data gathered and the support it provides to the existing studies on this topic, the research benefited from ethnography.