Ambulance Ramping Predicts Poor Mental Health of Paramedics

Objective: Ambulance ramping involves a patient remaining under paramedic care until a hospital emergency department bed becomes available. This study examined whether negative ramping experiences (verbal abuse, physical abuse, compromised patient care, and patient fatality) contribute to relatively high levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in paramedics. Method: Ninety Australian paramedics (Mage = 37.68, SD = 10.73; 52.2% male) completed an online survey. Results: Path analysis found that negative ramping experiences were positively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD. Interactions indicated that negative ramping experiences predicted greater depression, stress, and PTSD among paramedics with higher, but not lower, work-related self-efficacy. All interactions with resilience were nonsignificant. Conclusions: These findings suggest that policymakers should aim to reduce ambulance ramping, and that future research could fruitfully investigate the mental health benefits of training programs that include strategies to minimize paramedics’ feelings of powerlessness, frustration, and self-blame, during ramping.