Psychological determinants of professional success of rescuers of EMERCOM of Russia

Abstract

Relevance: Professional activities of rescuers not only involve a risk to their own lives, but also implies a high degree of responsibility for the lives and health of people affected by emergencies and accidents. Professional success and effectiveness of these specialists determine the outcome of rescue, search and other urgent activities. In this regard, determinants of professional effectiveness in rescuers need special attention and in-depth study. Intention: To investigate the psychological determinants of professional success of rescuers. Methodology: The study involved 55 male rescuers aged 20 to 60 years, with different levels of education (from secondary professional to higher). Self-assessment of the success of rescuers was determined by a 7-point scale via the question: "Do you consider yourself successful?" (7 - definitely Yes; 6 - Yes; 5 - rather Yes; 4 - hard to say, 50% to 50%; 3 - rather No; 2 - No; 1 - definitely No). Expert assessments of professional success were also performed. Psychological determinants of success were studied using psychodiagnostic techniques: "Socio-psychological adaptation" by K. Rogers and R. Diamond, "Professional burnout" by K. Maslach, a questionnaire to identify risk appetite by G. Schubert, the test of resilience by S. Muddy, the scale of psychological well-being by K. Ryff. Results and Discussion: With the help of cluster analysis of self-assessments, the sample of rescuers is divided into groups with high, medium and low professional success. According to the correlation analysis, external and internal evaluations of success significantly correlated only in the group of rescuers with low self-assessment of success. At the same time, expert assessments showed a negative trend, decreasing from a group with high to a group with professional success. Indicators of social and psychological adaptation, risk appetite, psychological well-being and resilience also show negative trends. Meanwhile, indicators of professional burnout show positive trends and increase from the group with high professional success to the group with low professional success. Conclusion: Psychological traits, such as adaptability, resilience, psychological well-being, risk appetite, resistance to professional burnout are the determinants of the success of rescuers and can be used as specific targets for psychological support of personnel of rescue units to improve their professional effectiveness. © 2019 Nikiforov Russian Center of Emergency and Radiation Medicine, EMERCOM of Russia. All Rights Reserved.