Effects of occupational anxiety on ethical value tendencies in emergency healthcare workers in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: Ethical values are moral values that are necessary in situations involving contradictions or the awareness of one’s own role and responsibilities in the existing situation. It is predicted that professional anxiety may affect the tendency of an individual related to ethical values. For this reason, this study aimed to analyze the effects of occupational anxiety in paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMT) on their levels of tendency towards ethical values. The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of paramedics and emergency medical technicians (n = 411). The data were collected by using a Personal Information Form, the Occupational Anxiety Scale for Emergency Healthcare Professionals and the Tendency towards Ethical Values Scale. Occupational anxiety levels (91.57 ± 13.09) and levels of tendency towards ethical values (72.50 ± 8.21) were found to be high in the paramedics and emergency medical technicians. A statistically significant relationship was found between the mean scores of the participants on the Occupational Anxiety Scale and their sociodemographic characteristics (gender, year of service, weekly working hours, willing choice of occupation, occupational satisfaction) (p < 0.05). Additionally, a statistically significant relationship was determined between the participants’ education levels and their mean scores on the Tendency towards Ethical Values scale (p < 0.05). In the study, it was found that as occupational anxiety increased, the tendency to ethical values increased (p < 0.001). As the levels of occupational anxiety in the paramedics and emergency medical technicians increased, their levels of tendency towards ethical values also increased.