FORMATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL READINESS OF CADETS OF SES HIGHER SCHOOLS TO WORK IN RISKY CIRCUMSTANCES
Authors:   Lviv State University of Life Safety, Lytvyn Andriy V. , Rudenko Larysa A. ,   Lviv State University of Life Safety
Published: July 2021

Social and political transformations in the Ukrainian society cause significant changes in the nature of service and combat activities of units, rescue and search formations of State Emergency Service of Ukraine, and, hence, the process of training professionals able to protect and ensure the safety of every citizen, society in general and the state as a whole needs modernization. The quality of the relevant tasks performance largely depends on the level of professional competence and psychological readiness of specialists of State Emergency Service of Ukraine to work in the conditions of danger and risk. The specificity of the professional activity of rescuers lies primarily in the fact that in terms of its intensity and duration it goes beyond the optimal parameters and makes increased demands on their mental and physiological capabilities. At the same time, the operational and tactical tasks performed are implemented due to actions associated with a certain risk. The daily work of SES specialists is classified as «the one with special conditions,» i.e. as extreme, harmful to health, and risky. Taking it into account, the process of training the cadets at SES higher schools ought to cultivate their readiness to come to the aid of people in risky circumstances, to save lives, overcoming the unpredictable consequences of emergency situations. The essence of psychological readiness of future civil defense specialists to work in risky circumstances in the context of the specifics of their professional activity is considered. Its successful implementation requires from specialists not only the formation of specific professional knowledge, skills, and abilities to apply them quickly and accurately (competence), but also constant and extreme concentration, mobilization, vigilance, efficiency of thinking and of responding to events, confidence in the correctness of decisions, in the success of their own actions (professionally important qualities), as well as the state of emotional and volitional stability and actualization of their intellectual and personal potential in decisionmaking and direct activities in extreme situations, reflecting the connection with various aspects of personal regulation, including rationality (psychological readiness). The authors give grounds for the necessity of introducing into the educational process of higher educational institutions of the State Emergency Service the pedagogical system of formation of cadets’ readiness for professional activity and the expediency of creating appropriate psychological and pedagogical conditions for increasing the effectiveness of this process (continuous improvement of the pedagogical skills of the teaching staff; active use of innovative service and combat experience of fire and rescue formations; improving psychological training by modeling stressors that affect personnel in hazardous circumstances and extreme situations; taking into account the individual psychological characteristics of cadets; moral and material stimulation of cadets ‘activity in ordinary and, especially, in extreme situations related to risk to life), aimed at ensuring their optimal preparedness to work in risky (extreme) circumstances.