Walk the line: a systemic perspective on stress experienced by emergency medical personnel by comparing military and civilian prehospital settings.

Introduction: Emergency Medicine (EM) personnel in both military and civilian prehospital settings are often exposed to stressful and extreme events. Therefore, a cross-pollination between both contexts in terms of coping strategies may generate new information for purposes of training, prevention, and support programs. In the current study, we aimed at comparing both contexts to understand the type of stress events personnel experience; whether experience differs between civilian and military personnel; and how they cope with it.