Development of Mobile Evacuation Guides for Travellers and Rescue Personnel

BACKGROUND: Abnormal excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) has been reported worldwide, but too little is known about EDS and its determinants in Search and Rescue (SAR) populations. We aimed to determine the prevalence of abnormal EDS and contributing factors among Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) SAR helicopter personnel.METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total of N = 175 RNoAF SAR personnel completed an electronic survey including socio-demographic and lifestyle questions. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used as both a continuous and categorical outcome variable to measure EDS.RESULTS: Abnormal EDS defined by ESS was found in 41% of the participants in this study. We observed no associations between socio-demographic and lifestyle factors and abnormal EDS in this study. DISCUSSION: There is a high prevalence of abnormal EDS in the current RNoAF SAR population. Despite this elevated level of fatigue, we did not find that the socio-demographic and lifestyle factors assessed in this study were associated with abnormal EDS in RNoAF SAR helicopter personnel. Also unusually, the study cohort did not demonstrate higher scores in factors found to change ESS scores in similar study populations (e.g., caffeine use, tobacco use, exercise level). Further research is required to investigate other factors (organizational, operational) that may be associated with abnormal EDS in this and other SAR populations.Akter R, Larose TL, Sandvik J, Fonne V, Meland A, Wagstaff AS. Excessive daytime sleepiness and associated factors in military search and rescue personnel. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(12):975–979.

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Drone in NBC disaster

International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health ◽

10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20184837 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (12) ◽

pp. 5476

Author(s):

Yong Han Kim

Keyword(s):

Remote Control ◽

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽

Human Exposure ◽

Nerve Agent ◽

Remote Laboratory ◽

Disaster Area ◽

Rescue Team ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

Rescue Personnel

Nuclear, Biological and chemical disasters are tragic and should never happen. Unavoidably occurred, access and reach are difficult because rescue personnel are exposed to hazards. Drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be operated by remote control or autonomous aviation. It has some advantages in NBC disaster as followings:First, drone can take a picture and record the scene in contaminated zone. Communication with injured is also possible without exposure to rescue team. Triage can be performed by analysis of movement, breathing and responsiveness, etc.Second, atropine and oxime are essential to nerve agent poisoning. It can be delivered by drone only inside contaminated zone for survivors.Third, drone can collect specimen without human exposure. Investigator can analyze the extent of pollution in remote laboratory with this specimen.Fourth, survivor can be evacuated from disaster area by drone itself. This operation needs heavy capability that would lift patients.I hope that NBC disaster could be overcome with this useful modern convenience.

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Personality and occupational stress in the field of mine rescue and intervention

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201929012018 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 290 ◽

pp. 12018

Author(s):

Izabella Kovacs ◽

Artur George Găman ◽

Angelica Călămar ◽

Daniel Pupăzan ◽

Cristian Nicolescu

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Occupational Stress ◽

Stressful Events ◽

Individual Response ◽

Internal Resources ◽

Emergency Situations ◽

Stress Symptoms ◽

The Social ◽

The Individual ◽

Rescue Personnel

The special conditions created by emergency situations are likely to lead to psychological and emotional strains. For part of intervention and rescue personnel, these are accompanied by mobilization of internal resources, while in others these may lead to disabling phenomena as well as the occurrence of stress symptoms. Some people have a constitutional or psychological vulnerability to the action of traditional stressors, being more prone to psychic stress. The multifactorial complex of non-specific factors that modulate the individual response necessarily includes personality traits, acquired during the individual’s experience and manifested in the context of its interactions with the social network, as well as in actual situations (stressful events). This paper presents the results of a series of psychological personality assessments of intervention and rescue personnel, in the context of analysing the relationship between personality traits and the risk of occupational stress occurrence.

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Acute Stress Symptoms, Dissociation, and Depression Among Rescue Personnel 24 Hours after the Bet-Yehoshua Train Crash: The Effects of Exposure to Dead Bodies

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x00006208 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 461-465 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Menachem Ben-Ezra ◽

Yuval Palgi ◽

Nir Essar ◽

Hilik Sofer ◽

Yeela Haber

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Stress Disorder ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Previous Exposure ◽

Stress Symptoms ◽

Dead Bodies ◽

The Impact ◽

Threat To Life ◽

Rescue Personnel ◽

Acute Stress Symptoms

AbstractIntroduction:The immediate impact of exposure to severe wounds, dead bodies, and immediate threat to life has been understudied. Most studies focus on the acute stress disorder and/or post-traumatic stress disorder phases in order to assess rescue personnel's symptomatology, and tend to neglect the immediate exposure to elements of the disaster.Hypothesis:Rescue personnel who had a history of previous exposure to dead bodies would exhibit higher levels of acute stress symptoms, dissociation, and depressive symptoms within the 24 hours following a traumatic event.Methods:Twenty-three rescue personnel participated in the search and excavation of dead and mutilated bodies following the Bet-Yehoshua train crash in Israel.The rescue personnel group was divided based on previous exposure to dead bodies. Each participant completed a demographic questionnaire, which included a question on perceived threat to life, the impact of event scale revised, the dissociative experience scale, and the center of epidemiologic studies depression questionnaire. Student's t-tests, along with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were conducted in order to learn which factors are related to psychiatric symptomatology following the immediate exposure to such stressors.Results:Among rescue personnel, those with previous exposure to dead bodies did not differ in their levels of acute stress symptoms, dissociation, and depressive symptoms from those who were not previously exposed to dead bodies.Conclusions:These results may suggest the possibility that the impact of exposure to dead bodies does not emerge in the acute stress reactions (ASR) phase (up to 24 hours after the event), but later when people have time to process the trauma. Another possibility is that the rescue coping mechanisms of detachment may serve as a buffer for the horrific sights encountered during the ASR period.

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