DEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY VALIDATION OF THE EMO-EMS QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ASSESSING EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE IN PRE-HOSPITAL EMERGENCY AND MOUNTAIN RESCUE OPERATIONS

Abstract

Emotional competence is crucial for the safety, effectiveness and well-being of prehospital emergency personnel, especially in demanding contexts such as helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and mountain rescue operations. The purpose of this study is to develop and preliminarily validate the EMO-EMS, a new questionnaire specifically designed to measure emotional regulation and empathy in this professional setting. The EMO-EMS was developed through literature review, consultation with experts and cognitive interviews with both EMS and HEMS professionals (pilots, hoist operators, nurses, mountain rescuers and physicians). The instrument comprises 24 items reflecting eight dimensions: attentional deployment, reappraisal (while and after the call), suppression (while and after the call), emotional empathy (positive and negative emotions), and cognitive empathy. Data are being collected from a national sample of Italian emergency and mountain rescue personnel, together with well-established measures of emotional regulation (DERS, ERQ), and empathy (EQ, IRI) in order to examine convergent validity. Analyses will examine reliability, construct validity and correlation with external criteria. Data collection is still ongoing. Descriptive statistics and internal consistency estimates will be reported at the conference, along with preliminary evidence of construct validity. The EMO-EMS aims to offer a valid and reliable questionnaire addressing the specific needs of EMS and mountain rescue environments, for research, training and personnel selection purposes. Future studies will complete the validation process, including test–retest reliability and the ability to predict operational performance.