ABSTRACT
Background: Emergency medical services [EMS] staff can play an important role in the survival and prevention of serious injuries to patients if they are in good physical and mental health and focus on doing their jobs with sufficient attention. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate attention level and its related factors in night shift prehospital emergency personnel
Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive-analytic study. A total of 114 Tehran prehospital emergency staff participated in this study. Pen and paper Bonnardel test and a questionnaire was used to collect information. The attention of the participants was assessed around 10-11 PM and 4-5 AM. The data were analyzed by using the Spearman correlation coefficient and independent t test
Results: Mean attention level of EMS staff was 0.490 +/- 0.237 around 10-11 PM and 0.456 +/- 0.252 around 4-5 AM. There was no statistically significant difference between the attention level of prehospital emergency staff around 10-11 PM and 4-5 AM [P?0.01]. Also, there was significant difference between age and the night attention [P<0.01]
Conclusion: The mean level of night attention of EMS staff was moderate. Therefore, based on the average number of daily missions in different bases, we recommend increasing the number of ambulances in the base or the number of bases in the crowded emergency areas. It is also necessary to increase welfare and nutritional facilities in prehospital emergency bases so that those who are older and experienced carry out fewer missions