The world is suffering from a stress epidemic, and in the UK, this is very apparent in the emergency services. The NHS and the police service have made the news repeatedly for the effect that stress has on the workers.
Now it has been claimed that damaging levels of stress are causing people who work to answer 999 calls and dispatch help to the people are leaving their jobs in three to five years because of stress.
Shane Clark, of Unison, said: “Staff could be dealing with a cardiac arrest and then helping someone with a urinary tract infection, all within the space of fifteen minutes.
“Not enough people are taking up call handler positions nationally, but… the main issue is that life expectancy in the role is three to five years.”
A senior control room manager, Paul Greatorex, argues against this. He said that staff have comfort breaks, in addition to two half-hour breaks throughout a 12 hour shift. “This is where staff can leave the room at any time and make a cup of tea. We also have a quiet room, so if they’ve had a difficult call they can leave the room for ten minutes.” He also added the large turnover of staff is largely due to the number of people who leave the call handling positions to take up other jobs within the NHS.
More could potentially done for people working high stress jobs. Stress management is something that is never brought up in a lot of work environments. Meditation, mindfulness and other stress management techniques could help people deal with the stress levels of their jobs.
