The quality of emergency medical services and the number of places of employment

Paramedics care for and treat people in situations that pose an immediate risk to their health or life. Emergency medical systems and services are faced with increasingly high requirements; therefore, appropriate organization of medical care is essential. The sense of coherence is considered an important variable related to professional functioning. The aim of the present study was subjective opinions of paramedics concerning an impact of the number of places of employment on the quality of services provided in the light of the sense of coherence. Material and methods The study involved 336 professionally active paramedics of ambulance emergency teams employed in the randomly chosen medical facilities in Poland. The research was conducted using a diagnostic survey based on two questionnaires, i.e. the orientation to life questionnaire measuring the sense of coherence (SOC-29) and the anonymous questionnaire designed by the author.