Stress tolerance of Russia's EMERCOM employees engaged in hazardous occupations

We conducted a psychological survey of 221 professionals from the Firefighting Service of St. Petersburg, 15 mine rescuers from the Federal State Institution, Administration of military mine-rescue detachments in building industry, and 28 students of the Firefighting and Rescue College named St. Petersburg Centre for Rescuers' Training. A survey was conducted on the base of the Medical Registry of Russian EMERCOM Research department (head: O.M. Astafiev, Cand. Med. Sci., Associate Professor), the Federal State Budget Institution Nikiforov Russian Centre of Emergency and Radiation Medicine, EMERCOM of Russia, using the prognosis technique to estimate neuropsychic resistance, which was developed by the psychological laboratory of the Federal State Military Educational Institution S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy, Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, and a technique of expert assessment for determining performance efficiency in firefighters. The study of professional adaptation in employees engaged in hazardous occupations regarding their neuropsychic resistance against continuous vital threat revealed various mental responses, from anxiety state to neuroses and psychoses. Due to acknowledgement of vital threat, a constant readiness for actions exists; however, the latter is not always perceived. This readiness, associated with an adequate mental tension, is a normal response to danger. A high readiness for actions (neuropsychological resistance, NPR) implies readaptation to conditions of vital threat, ability to maintain readiness for instant actions in case of emergencies, mental agility against the background of emotional tension. On the contrary, inability to be continuously ready for emergent actions leads to inadequate responses and, hence, accidents and disasters. This study revealed a decreased stress resistance with aging of employees engaged in hazardous occupations. According to mean NPR parameters in sampling groups, a higher stress resistance (category I NPR) was shown in firefighters (58.4 %) compared with students (21.4 %) and mine rescuers (33.3 %). A risk group for possible disadaptation (category III and IV NPR), which requires psychocorrection measures, included 40 % of mine rescuers, 53.6% of students and 9 % of firefighters. In the overall sample, there were three times as many highly stress-resistant firefighters of young age as students (67.6 % and 21.4 %, respectively). Low and borderline NPR parameters were 6 times more common in students than in firefighters of young age in their respective sample (53.6 % and 8.5 %, respectively). No statistically significant correlation between NPR and work experience was revealed in firefighters and mine rescuers. According to expert assessment, a direct relationship of NPR level with health state (r = 0.32) and prospects of professional growth (r = 0.23) was established in firefighters. In firefighters, a relationship between health and professional advancement, on the one hand, and NPR levels, on the other, was established based on expert assessment.

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