Phenomenological Study on the Crisis Experience of Fire and Emergency Medical Service Personnel in COVID-19 Pandemic

This is a phenomenological study of the crisis experiences of fire and emergency medical service personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. 6 research questions were formulated: foucing on pre-pandemic crisis perceptions; changes of perceptions; personal crises; systemic crisis including family, workplace, and ministry; responses to these crises; and desired organizational and authority improvements. Through in-depth interviews with 9 research participants, the data were analyzed with the phenomenological method of qualitative research. Triangulation was conducted ensuring the objectivity and reliability of the findings. The study identified 89 meanings, 42 themes, 12 theme clusters, and 2 categories, including theme clusters such as pre-pandemic crisis awareness, physical crisis, mental crisis, relational crisis, crisis within the organization, institutional crisis, physical crisis response, mental crisis response, relational crisis response, crisis response within the organization, improvements within the organization, and institutional improvements. Based on this, discussion, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research are presented.