The current study examines posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters in the context of indirect exposure and compares symptom expression between emergency dispatchers and veterans. Given that a dispatcher's job is inherently different from that of our military, it would be expected that their PTSD symptoms are different as well. Understanding differences in presenting PTSD symptoms in emergency dispatchers relative to a group of veterans for the purposes of providing insight into prevention and treatment. We hypothesized that emergency dispatchers...

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The job of an emergency dispatcher is inherently stressful. As a 9-1-1 dispatcher, it is expected to receive a call for a multi-system trauma victim, a child drowning, an assault, amongst thousands of others, will be answered. These stressors are encountered multiple times per shift. While answering the call is controllable, the stressor on the other end is not. To examine the relationships of emergency dispatchers' home and work life, and present perceived control (how one focuses energy on what can be controlled in an uncontrollable situation) on secondary traumatic stress (STS), the effects...

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