Background: Ambulance personnel experience significant stress in their day-to-day work as they respond to medical emergencies that are often traumatic and challenging. Cumulative events and ongoing stressors have been linked to increased mental health issues among emergency responders, especially ambulance personnel. Social support has been identified as a coping strategy that positively affects the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions. However, there is limited research within the New Zealand emergency medical response area regarding what formal and informal social support ambulance personnel use to cope.

Aim: This study aims to document the use of formal and informal social support of ambulance personnel at St John in New Zealand. There are ten different types of formal support within the St John organisation. Informal support includes nine types of support that ambulance personnel may access external to St John. This study also aims to examine the characteristics of ambulance personnel related to the social supports they utilise, and their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the available functions of support. These functions look at, but are not limited to, ease of job, emotional and financial support, inclusion, and guidance.

Method: Ambulance personnel were recruited through emails from the St John employee weekly bulletin. The participants answered an online questionnaire gathering personal demographic information, level of perceived stress, and individual perception of formal and informal supports available and utilised. A total of 89 participants were included in the study.

Results: The perceived stress scale (PSS) was found to have high reliability for the study. The average PSS score showed high levels of stress. Informal support of spouse/partner, family, and friends showed more emotional support. Spouse/partner and family provided more financial support; overall, spouse/partner showed more social support. Colleagues showed more support than most other formal supports, followed by peer support in certain support functions.

Conclusion: New Zealand ambulance personnel experience high perceived stress as part of their work. They utilise mostly informal social supports from spouses/partners, and family, while colleagues are often the go-to support in the workplace. Implications of this study were discussed, along with recommendations for future research.