Jozsef Marton

Cross-sectional survey on self-reported health of ambulance personnel

BackgroundThe high job stress among ambulance personnel is a widely known phenomenon. Purpose: to asses the self reported health status of ambulance workers.MethodsAn anonym self-fill-in questionnaire applying SF-36 was used among workers from the northern and western regions of Hungarian National Ambulance Service.ResultsBased on the dimensions of the SF-36 questionnaire the respondents considered their “Physical Functioning” the best, while “Vitality” was regarded the worst. The more time an employee have been worked at the HNAS the worse his health was in the first four dimensions like, “Physical Functioning”, “Role-Physical”, “Bodily Pain”, “General Health”: p < 0.001. Those working in secondary part-time jobs considered their health in all dimensions worse. The respondents who did some kind of sports hold their health in all dimensions better (p < 0.001). The workers with higher BMI regarded their health status worse, in four dimensions: “Physical Functioning”: p = 0.001; “Role-Physical”: p = 0.013; “General Health”: p < 0.001; “Role-Emotional”: p = 0.05.ConclusionsThe workers health status proved to be insufficient according to the subjective perception and measurable parameters. According to the subjective perception of health and measurable parameters of health status of workers proved to be insufficient. Poor physical health can lead indirectly to psychological problems, which may lower the quality of the work and can lead to high turn-over.

Knowledge about basic life support in European students

INTRODUCTION Better knowledge and skills of basic life support can save millions of lives each year in Europe. AIM The aim of this study was to measure the knowledge about basic life support in European students. METHOD From 13 European countries 1527 volunteer participated in the survey. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic questions and knowledge regarding basic life support. The maximum possible score was 18. RESULTS Those participants who had basic life support training earned 11.91 points, while those who had not participated in lifesaving education had 9.6 points (p<0.001). Participants from former socialist Eastern European countries reached 10.13 points, while Western Europeans had average 10.85 points (p<0.001). The best results were detected among the Swedish students, and the worst among the Belgians. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results, there are significant differences in the knowledge about basic life support between students from different European countries. Western European youth, and those who were trained had better performance.

645: POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG AMBULANCE PERSONNEL - ARE DRUGS THE RIGHT WAY?

of surgical patients in whom ICU outcomes are favourable. We therefore aimed to describe the ICU cancer population and to assess outcomes in cancer patients admitted to ICU with a medical diagnosis. Methods: We used routinely collected data from West of Scotland ICUs linked to Scottish Cancer registry to identify patients (aged 16 or over) admitted to ICU between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2011. Patients who had a diagnosis of a malignant cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) within the previous 5-years were identified. We compared these patients to patients without cancer. Non-cancer patients had no diagnosis of cancer between 1984 and date discharged from ICU. Results: 49451 individual patients were admitted to an ICU during the study period. A malignant neoplasm had been diagnosed in 9704 (20%). The majority were diagnosed in the year prior to admission (7704, 85%). The number of admissions by major cancer type were as follows colorectal 4223 (41% of admissions with cancer), stomach 692 (7%), lung 669 (6%), oesophageal 588 (6%) and bladder 425 (4%). 17% of cancer patients were admitted from a medical specialty compared to 50% of non-cancer patients. Of the patients admitted with a medical diagnosis, median age of patients with cancer was 65 (IQR 57-73) vs 56 (41-69) years for patients without cancer and median APACHE II score was 20 (9-27) vs 18 (10-25). The proportion of medical cancer and non-cancer patients in which organ support was provided was by invasive mechanical ventilation (71% vs 75%); vasoactive drug therapy (58% vs 46%); renal replacement therapy (20% vs 14%). The proportion of cancer patients with greater than one supported organ was 53% compared to 43% of patients without cancer. Mortality in ICU among medical cancer patients was 37.9% (95% CI 35.7 40.1%) compared to 25.8% (25.2 26.4%) in non-cancer patients. ICU mortality among cancer patients who did not receive organ support was 6.2% (1.7-15.0%) and 4.7% (3.3-6.4%) for non-cancer patients. Among patients who received three organ support mortality was 60.0% (45.1 73.6%) and 49.4% (44.9 -53.9%) among cancer and non-cancer patients respectively. Conclusions: Cancer patients admitted to ICU from a medical specialty tend to be older and have higher severity of illness scores. As a result there is a higher requirement for multi-organ support. Irrespective of the number of organs supported ICU mortality is higher among those patients with cancer.