Scholarly record

REVIEW OF FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE WORK CAPACITY OF INTERVENTION AND RESCUE PERSONNEL IN DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENTS

Marius Kovacs, Alexandru Simion, Andrei Gireadă, Lorand Toth, S Simion

Abstract

Usually, only a part of the work capacity is spent in the professional activity, being materialized as products and services made/accomplished within the work process. However, there are also instances, in extreme cases, when total work capacity needs to be engaged, thus an important body reserve being used. Work capacity is represented by the totality of an individual’s (physical, mental, intellectual) possibilities to perform a useful activity at an optimal level of intensity and efficiency. One of the most important issues regarding intervention and rescue activities is represented by knowledge of performance variation limits and possibilities of establishing them. Large variation of work in intervention and rescue activities leads to very difficult work demands, in nature or intensity. But, regardless of how limited demands in the work process are, they affect the whole body. Whatever the specificity of work is, sooner or later, a decrease of work capacity occurs, reflected in a decrease of productivity, caused by fatigue. Knowledge of work capacity represents one of the basic factors for proper management of intervention and rescue activities, and, knowledge of factors that determine work capacity, allows for appropriate measures to be taken to prevent overload, by creating training conditions similar to those of real-life emergencies. The paper aims to outline the concept of "work capacity" in terms of physical and psychological factors as well as factors characterizing work environment, correlated with social and economic aspects, influencing the activity that rescuers carry out in highly dangerous environments. Also, the paper presents an analysis of physiological factors having major influence on work capacity, reviewing aspects of health, nutrition and training of certain operators for rescue work.

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