Morten Kyed

Physical and psychosocial work environment factors and their association with health outcomes in Danish ambulance personnel – a cross-sectional study

BackgroundReviews of the literature on the health and work environment of ambulance personnel have indicated an increased risk of work-related health problems in this occupation. The aim of this study was to compare health status and exposure to different work environmental factors among ambulance personnel and the core work force in Denmark. In addition, to examine the association between physical and psychosocial work environment factors and different measures of health among ambulance personnel.MethodsData were taken from a nationwide sample of ambulance personnel and fire fighters (n = 1,691) and was compared to reference samples of the Danish work force. The questionnaire contained measures of physical and psychosocial work environment as well as measures of musculoskeletal pain, mental health, self-rated health and sleep quality.ResultsAmbulance personnel have half the prevalence of poor self-rated health compared to the core work force (5% vs. 10%). Levels of mental health were the same across the two samples whereas a substantially higher proportion of the ambulance personnel reported musculoskeletal pain (42% vs. 29%). The ambulance personnel had higher levels of emotional demands and meaningfulness of and commitment to work, and substantially lower levels of quantitative demands and influence at work. Only one out of ten aspects of physical work environment was consistently associated with higher levels of musculoskeletal pain. Emotional demands was the only psychosocial work factor that was associated with both poorer mental health and worse sleep quality.ConclusionsAmbulance personnel have similar levels of mental health but substantially higher levels of musculoskeletal pain than the work force in general. They are more exposed to emotional demands and these demands are associated with higher levels of poor mental health and poor sleep quality. To improve work environment, attention should be paid to musculoskeletal problems and the presence of positive organizational support mechanisms that can prevent negative effects from the high levels of emotional demands.

Masculinity Ideals in a Contemporary Danish Context

What are the prevailing masculinity ideals among contemporary Danish men? As one of the Nordic welfare states, Denmark has for decades focused on gender equality and changes in the gendered division of labour. Research has suggested a shift in masculinity ideals, but processes of change comprise not only changes but also continuities, as well as ambivalences and contradictions. This article investigates how normative masculinity ideals—the most accepted ways of being a man in a certain context—are expressed and negotiated by contemporary Danish men, and how these ideals are related to overall discourses of gender. The article is based on a mixed methods design, consisting of: (1) a quantitative survey among lower-educated men in two male-dominated occupations, and (2) a qualitative, explorative analysis of data from five focus group interviews with both lower- and higher-educated men. The two occupations in the survey constitute a critical case, based on the argument that if traditional masculinity ideals are rejected here—among lower-educated men, who are likely to be more supportive of traditional gender ideals than the more highly educated—then Danish men in general are likely to reject traditional masculinity ideals. Both the quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that traditional patriarchal masculinity ideals are not the most legitimate among the men. They seem to subscribe to more gender equality friendly masculinities, although this picture is not clear-cut as we also see negotiations and variations between the men. Thus, the article concludes that in a Danish context we can identify authoritative masculinity ideals that do not reproduce patriarchy or support traditional masculinity ideals in an unambiguous way.

Ambulancearbejde, sikkerhed og maskuline rekonfigurationer: Etnografiske fortællinger om kulturelle praksisser under forandring

Trods den vedvarende konnede ulighed i forekomsten af arbejdsulykker og utallige studiers beskrivelser af sammenhaeng mellem maskulinitet og risikoadfaerd, har kun ganske fa studier undersogt sammenhaengen mellem maends kons- og sikkerhedspraksis pa arbejde. Baseret pa 575 timers etnografisk feltarbejde og 20 interviews med mandlige ambulancereddere belyser denne artikel nogle centrale sammenhaenge mellem mandlige ambulanceredderes maskulinitets- og sikkerhedspraksis. Artiklen viser, hvordan mandlige ambulancereddere bl.a. praktiserer sikkerhed ved at positionere sig i opposition til en kollektiv fortaelling om fortidens ”John Wayne- og Tarzan Syndrom”. Undertiden udtrykkes denne symbolske skillelinje mellem traditionel og moderne maskulinitetspraksis eksplicit, men oftest forekommer den implicit i de mandlige ambulanceredderes kulturelle praksis. Denne kulturelle sikkerheds/ maskulinitets-rekonfiguration indebaerer bl.a., at de mandlige ambulancereddere eksplicit tager afstand fra den maskuline helterolle, som medierne tilskriver dem. En anden made, opgoret med den tidligere maskulinitetspraksis traeder frem i det empiriske materiale, er gennem reddernes udbredte fremhaevelse af det, jeg kalder et ”forlosningsfaellesskab” i forbindelse med kollegial bearbejdning af barske ambulanceopgaver. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Morten Kyed: Emergency Medical Ambulance Work, Safety and Masculine Reconfigurations: Ethnographic Tales about Cultural Practices Undergoing Change Despite the continuing gendered inequality in the incidence of work-related accidents, and countless descriptions of the relationship between masculinity and risk behavior, few studies have examined the relation between male gender and safety practices at work. Based on 575 hours of ethnographic fieldwork and 20 interviews with male EMTs, this article explores some key associations between masculinity and safety practices among male EMTs in Denmark. The article shows how male EMTs practice safety by positioning themselves in opposition to a collective narrative of the past: The ”John Wayne and Tarzan Syndrome”. Sometimes this is expressed explicitly in symbolic boundaries between traditional and modern masculinity practice, but mostly it is expressed implicitly in the male EMTs’ cultural practices. This cultural safety/masculinity reconfiguration involves, inter alia, that the male EMTs explicitly reject the masculine heroic role the media attribute to them. Another way of breaking with former masculinity practices that emerges in the empirical material is the widespread emphasis on what I call a ”community of relief” in the context of collegial processing of harsh ambulance experiences. Keywords: masculinity, safety, practice, ambulance work.