Ümit Alper ÖZCAN, Ramiz YAZICI, Hüseyin MUTLU, Medine Akkan ÖZ, Uğur ŞAKAR, Yunus YATMAZ, Özgür Ömer YILDIZ
Ankara Medical Journal - 2026;26(3):406-422
Objectives: Pediatric emergencies are relatively uncommon in prehospital care, but they may cause considerable stress among healthcare providers because of limited exposure, high perceived clinical risk, and age-specific management requirements. This study aimed to evaluate perceived stress during pediatric patient care among prehospital healthcare providers and to examine its relationship with perceived knowledge, clinical self-confidence, pediatric case exposure, and perceived team support. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study included prehospital healthcare providers working in Ankara Provincial Emergency Medical Services. The online questionnaire was distributed to 312 eligible providers, and 187 participants were analyzed, yielding a response rate of 59.9%. Data were collected using an anonymous questionnaire covering sociodemographic and professional characteristics and five Likert-type subscales. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Since subscale scores were not normally distributed, Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine relationships between variables. Results: The mean perceived stress score was 3.19+/-1.10, indicating a moderate-to-high level of stress. Overall, 48.1% of participants had high perceived stress scores. Perceived stress was negatively correlated with perceived knowledge, clinical self-confidence, and pediatric case exposure. Team support had the highest mean score among the subscales but was not directly correlated with perceived stress. More than half of the participants reported exposure to only 0-5 pediatric cases during the previous year. Conclusion: Prehospital healthcare providers experience considerable stress when caring for pediatric patients. Lower perceived knowledge, reduced clinical self-confidence, and limited pediatric case exposure were associated with higher perceived stress. Targeted pediatric training and repeated simulation-based practice may improve preparedness in prehospital pediatric care.
