Psychological burden for legal responsibility of 119 emergency personnels

119구급대원의 법적책임에 대한 심리적 부담감

Purpose : To grasp the mental burden for legal responsibility that rescue members have in the performance of job. Method : Questionnaire was presented to rescue members serving in 2 direct control safety centers of fire station located in Seoul, Daejon, Incheon, Kwangju, Busan, Daegu and Ulsan. Results : 1. Questioned whether they have mental burden for legal responsibility while performing job on the site, the rescue members responded : very burdensome in 38.0%, burdensome in 56.0%, moderate in 4.5%, not burdensome in 1.0%, no burden at all in 0.5%. 2. Questioned on the first aid treat for which they have the most mental burden, the rescue members responded : intubation into trachea laryngeal mask airway(LMA) in 40.4%, automatic external defibrillator in 16.3%, securing vein providing sap(medicine) in 10.8%, basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation in 7.2%, eliminating foreign matters inserted into body in 5.4%, stanching external bleeding and treating injury in 5.4%, fixing extremities and spine by using splint in 1.8%, measuring the symptom of vitality in 1.2%, providing oxygen in 0.0%. 3. Questioned whether experiencing legal problem or firm petition(complaint) raised by patient while serving as rescue members, they responded : experiencing a complaint in 41.6%, experiencing no complaint in 58.4%. Asked to indicate the stress level in the scale of which they suffered when lawsuit or firm petition was raised, 0(weak)-10(strong), they answered 8.8 in average. 4. Questioned whether 119 rescue members put the legal responsibility in case that they cause damage to patients intentionally in performing, they responded to the inquiry 3.66 in average(of 5.00). It represented meaningful differences (F=2.874, p=.024) whether they had license or not. 5. In future, legal action will raise against the rescue member by 99% because of people's rights improvement(63.1%), high expectations for the rescue system(29.5%), non-licensed rescue members(5.1%). Conclusion : It was found that the rescue members had severe mental burden for advanced life support which was investigated to have low enforcement rate in the preceding research, for instance, intubation into trachea securing vein management by using automatic external defibrillator. To improve the qualitative level of rescue service in the fire fighting, it may be required to construct the environment that eliminates the mental burden of rescue members for legal responsibility.