| Popis: |
Modern emergency medical systems (EMS) and paramedicine as a profession have changed significantly in recent years, with service demand, employee workload and scheduling practices adapting to changing demographic and population pressures in order to provide continual pre- hospital medical services to the public. To achieve this, EMS systems utilize a wide variety of shift schedule patterns, including consecutive or rotating patterns of day or night shifts of varying duration. The objective of this scoping review is to evaluate what research is available related to variations in shift scheduling patterns in EMS systems, while its specific research question is to determine how variations in shift scheduling patterns affect self-reported stress, fatigue, sleepiness, sleep cycle or health changes in EMS professionals. Following the Population – Intervention – Comparison – Outcome (PICO) format, the population for this review will include EMS paramedics in land-based ambulance systems employed in shift work of varying scheduling patterns. The intervention will be any variation of shift schedule patterning as compared to regularly repeating day or night shifts, while outcomes of interest are measurable changes in self-reported levels of stress, fatigue, sleepiness, sleep cycle or health changes. Changes in such measurable outcomes related to shift patterns variations may indicate the need for further studies into specific scheduling practices. |
