Citation

Choi YJ. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2019.87

PMID

31587684

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Disaster health care workers experience much greater stress providing psychological first-aid and suffer from the indirect experience of traumatic events. This study examines how disaster health care workers experience disaster mental health.

METHODS: Twenty-one disaster health care workers recruited from fire stations, community mental health service centers, and disaster trauma centers in Korea participated in this study. Data were collected via in-depth interviews and qualitatively analyzed according to Colaizzi's phenomenological approach.

RESULTS: Disaster health care workers' experiences of disaster mental health can be analyzed according to 4 theme categories: (1) commitment to one's duty as a disaster health care worker; (2) powerlessness and lack of confidence; (3) incident shock and burnout; and (4) incomplete and inadequate healing.

CONCLUSIONS: In order to prevent mental health problems and support the disaster health care workers, it is necessary to develop and provide effective, nationwide psychological first-aid training, as well as disaster trauma recovery programs that are tailored to Korean sociocultural context and use immersive digital health care/education technology.

Language: en

Keywords

disaster; disaster health care workers; mental health; psychological first-aid; qualitative research