Occupational hazards exposure and risk perception among emergency medical technicians of the national ambulance service in Ghana

Abstract

Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are the healthcare providers mandated to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for patients with critical medical conditions outside a medical facility. This study assessed occupational hazards among EMTs of the National Ambulance Service (NAS) in Ghana. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among EMTs to assess occupational hazards related to their work. The study used a multistage sampling technique; the country was clustered into Northern, Middle, and Southern; 7 regions (Ashanti, Greater Accra, Northern, Bono, Western, Oti, and Eastern regions) were purposively selected with all the service stations in these regions. A total of 59 NAS stations and 413 EMTs were recruited from February to November 2020. Participants self-administered a structured questionnaire based on different variables including their socio-demographic characteristics, occupational health, and injuries, health risk perception and knowledge in transporting Covid-19 cases. The data tool linked to a Google form was subsequently deployed unto the various WhatsApp platforms of the various NAS stations to download and self-administer and return same via entropic means for cloud storage. Out of the 400 respondents, 76.8% acknowledged occupational health hazards at work, 65.3% knew occupational hazards and 51% stated debriefing as their main coping strategy. Also, 71.2% and 77.75% of EMTs had good knowledge and attitude towards occupational health risks respectively. Meanwhile, 51.0% of EMTs had ever suffered injuries during work of which 83.2% indicated their health/body was affected and most 82.5% were diagnosed with back pain. Most 84.5% EMTs had training on transporting Covid-19 cases of which 77.0% had good knowledge in transporting Covid-19 cases. The study also showed a significant association between sex, marital status, religion, level of practice and educational level on knowledge of occupational risk (χ2=14.47, p<0.001), (χ2=33.86, p<0.001), (χ2=18.40, p<0.001), (χ2=12.83, p<0.001) and (χ2=41.65, p<0.001) respectively. The study thus concluded that most EMTs were aware of occupational health hazards issues in their work environment, and more than half had suffered from a form of occupational health hazard, mostly cuts and wounds, and stress.