Trauma, Family, and Emergency Medical Services: An Autoethnography of a Ride-Along Experience

Abstract

Emergency Medical Services personnel include Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians. These individuals serve the community by providing crisis intervention services for medical emergencies. In reaction to critical incidents representing vicarious trauma, Emergency Medical Services personnel experience high rates of compassion fatigue, burnout, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The bond among Emergency Medical Services personnel is strong and provides a natural support for coping with vicarious trauma. Thus, workers prefer to depend on co-workers for emotional support and separate home life from the world of emergency services. This autoethnography explores the journey of a researcher and counselor who observes her paramedic significant other in the field. Through her ride-along experience she gains insight as to what happens when the home life and work life of Emergency Medical Services personnel collide.

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