Development and psychometric testing of physiopsychological disorders scale for medical rescuers fighting epidemics in China.

OBJECTIVE: Develop and psychometrically test the physiopsychological disorders scale for medical rescuers fighting epidemics (PDS-MRFE). METHOD: A three-phase approach was used to develop and test the physiopsychological disorders scale: (1) creating the item pool, (2) preliminarily evaluating items, and (3) refining the scale and estimating the psychometric properties. The items of the instrument were generated based on a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study conducted with 31 medical rescuers (18 nurses and 13 doctors) fighting epidemics. A preliminary evaluation of items was conducted using content validity which was evaluated by a panel of 15 experts. Validity and reliability examinations were conducted to refine the scale and evaluate its psychometric properties. This was done using two different samples. Specifically, Sample A (360 medical rescuers) was employed for item reduction and exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and Sample B (287 medical rescuers) was employed for the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and determination of other psychometric properties (i.e., reliability, concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity), which further confirmed the structure of the scale and evaluated its final psychometric properties. RESULTS: The final scale has 39 items with three subscales, including before, during, and after rescue. The exploratory factor analysis result indicated that the before-rescue scale of four items, during-rescue of 21 items, and after-rescue of 14 items explained 52.07%, 69.75%, and 52.30% of the cumulative variance, respectively. The confirmatory factor analysis result indicated that model fit indices of three subscales were acceptable and showed evidence of adequate content, convergent, discriminate, and concurrent validity. The Cronbach's α coefficients for each subscale and all dimensions ranged from 0.81 to 0.92, indicating good reliability for the PDS-MRFE. CONCLUSIONS: The physiopsychological disorders scale is a psychometrically valid and reliable instrument and can be used in both clinical practice and research to evaluate different physiopsychological disorders at different medical rescue stages among medical rescuers fighting epidemics.

[Personal resources and negative and positive effects of traumatic events in a group of medical rescuers]. / Zasoby osobiste a negatywne i pozytywne skutki doswiadczen traumatycznych u ratowników medycznych.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the research was to investigate the role of personal resources, such as optimism and sense of selfefficacy in both negative (posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms) and positive (posttraumatic growth - PTG) effects of experienced trauma in a group of emergency service representatives. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data of 100 medical rescue workers, mostly men (59%) who have experienced traumatic events in their worksite were analyzed. The age of the participants ranged from 24 to 60 years (mean = 37.43; standard deviation = 8.73). Polish versions of the Impact of Event Scale - Revised and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory were used to assess the negative and positive effects of experienced events. Optimism was assessed by the Life Orientation Test and sense of self-efficacy by the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale. RESULTS: The obtained results revealed that optimism is negatively associated with symptoms of PTSD in men, and sense of self-efficacy - positively with the severity of growth after trauma in women. CONCLUSIONS: The analyzed personal resources play a diverse role in the emergence of negative and positive effects of experienced traumatic events, depending on the gender of the respondents. Med Pr 2016;67(5):635-644.

Development of a Health Problem Prevention and Control Strategies Scale for Medical Rescuers Fighting Epidemics.

This study aimed to develop and validate a new scale to measure health problem prevention and control strategies employed by medical rescuers fighting epidemics. In Study I, a qualitative study, focus group discussion, and expert panel review were conducted to generate items that capture components of prevention and control strategies. In Study II, exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the scale's structure. In Study III, the scale's validity and reliability were assessed via confirmatory factor analysis, average variance extracted, composite reliability, and Cronbach's α. Data analysis was performed using Nvivo 12.0, SPSS 25.0, and Amos 23.0. The final scale was divided into three subscales (comprising 5 factors and 18 items on the Before Medical Rescue subscale, 6 factors and 28 items on the During Medical Rescue subscale, and 4 factors and 14 items on the After Medical Rescue subscale). The scale has excellent validity and reliability and can be used to measure the health problem prevention and control strategies of medical rescuers fighting epidemics.

Psychological consequences and quality of life among medical rescuers who responded to the 2010 Yushu earthquake: A neglected problem.

A comprehensive study was conducted 8 months after the 2010 Yushu earthquake to assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among medical rescuers and the rescuers' quality of life. Additionally, the study examines differences between local and supporting forces, as well as the relationship between PTSD and lower quality of life (QoL), and the risk factors for both. A total of 338 rescuers (including 123 local rescuers and 215 supporting ones) were randomly selected from Yushu County (the epicenter) and Xining City using multistage systematic sampling. Two standardized instruments, the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) and the Chinese version of the WHOQOL-BREF, were used to evaluate the prevalence of PTSD and obtain the rescuers' QoL. Being between 40 and 50 years old, a nurse, Tibetan, having been in serious danger or having received mental health training before this earthquake were significantly and independently associated with PTSD symptoms. Compared with supporting rescuers, local rescuers were more likely to develop PTSD and to report a lower QoL. Additional mental health services and training should be available to at-risk medical rescuers and groups to ensure they are adequately prepared for relief efforts and to maintain their mental health after assistance in disaster relief.