Does a peer social support group intervention using the cares skills framework improve emotional expression and emotion-focused coping in paramedic students?

There is growing concern for the health and wellbeing of paramedic students who are required to undertake work integrated learning (WIL) in the ambulance setting to become a registered paramedic. Paramedic culture, barriers to help seeking, and difficulty in accessing peer support is limiting their ability to express emotions and cope with workplace stress. This study aimed to examine whether participation in a peer social support group, using the CARES skills framework, changed paramedic students' emotional expression and emotion-focused coping. A convenience sample of seventy-eight participants were recruited from a paramedic program at a single regional university in Australia. Due to small participant numbers third year students were assigned to the intervention group (n = 44) and second year students were assigned to the control group (n = 34). The intervention group received training on how to undertake a peer social support group using the skills embedded in the CARES framework and were encouraged to meet every two weeks over a twelve-week period. All participants completed online surveys consisting of the DASS-21 stress subscale, General Help Seeking Questionnaire, Emotional Approach Coping Scale, Emotional Expressivity Scale and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in week 1 and in week 12. Findings suggest that peer social support participation significantly increased emotional expression and emotion-focused coping when compared to the control group. Furthermore, this intervention significantly reduced participants' reliance upon help seeking without a significant increase in external social support. This is the first known study to investigate the role of peer social support amongst paramedic students, and the findings provide new information on how to help individuals cope with the stressors of working in the ambulance setting. Future studies should investigate whether the positive effects of peer social support are consistent over time and focus on minimising sampling issues.

Experiences of partners of prostate cancer survivors: A qualitative study.

Prostate cancer, Australia's leading cancer, has treatment side effects that reduce the quality of life for both survivors and partners. Limited partner research exists. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by gathering data directly from partners to obtain a deeper understanding of their experiences of prostate cancer survivorship that helps inform healthcare service providers. A qualitative approach was taken to explore participant views (N = 16) through three focus groups and two in-depth interviews. Five themes emerged relating to caregiver burden, knowledge deficit, isolation, changes of sexual relations, and unmet needs. Possible implications for practice may include the need for specific partner-related information and interventions to assist couples to cope with the emotional distress caused by treatment side effects.