Parents’ experiences of the caring encounter in the ambulance service—A qualitative study

Abstract

Aims and objectives To explore the experiences of the caring encounter in the ambulance service among parents to children aged 0–14 years. Background The care provided by the ambulance team is often associated with emergency medicine, traumatology and disaster medicine. But to develop care in the ambulance service, it is imperative to understand what the parents want and value in the care for their child. Design A qualitative study design was used. Methods Interviews was used for data collection, 16 caring encounters described by 14 parents were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Reporting of this research adheres to the COREQ guidelines. Results The parents described the importance of giving the family enough time in the situation, creating a safe environment and involving the parents in the care. In cases where the parents felt insecure, there had been lack of communication and lack of sensitivity, and the ambulance team did not invite the parents to be participate in the care. Conclusions There is a need to strengthen the family‐centred care in the ambulance service. Not inviting the parents in the care and use of equipment that was nonfunctioning or not adjustable for the children’s age caused lack of trust and increased the level of stress among the parents. The parents had a positive experience and felt included when the team were calm, responsive and gave them the chance to be participants in their child’s care. Relevance to clinical practice The prehospital emergency care nurses need to be prepared for caring of children and their parents. The ambulance team also need to understand their role in providing care of children. Lack of confidence in treating children may be perceived as nonfamily‐centred care. There is need of further training concerning family‐centred care in the ambulance service.

Prehospital vital sign monitoring in paediatric patients: an interregional study of educational interventions

“…We provided written standardised recommendations for commonly used medications in paediatric emergency medicine, ‘which has been shown to reduce administration errors’ [ 18 ]. EMS providers were encouraged to have a standardised approach to the clinical examination of children, and this may have increased the caregivers’ confidence in the ambulance team [ 10 ].…”

“…Life-threatening events are infrequent among children [ 3 – 6 ]. Nonetheless, clinical examination of children with acute illnesses or injuries can be challenging for health care professionals who do not treat children on a daily basis and may be stressful in emergency settings [ 7 – 10 ]. The Children's Safety Initiative-EMS identified several educational priorities for EMS providers: paediatric airway management, responder anxiety when working with children and general paediatric skills, among others [ 11 ].…”

The predictors, barriers and facilitators to effective management of acute pain in children by emergency medical services: A systematic mixed studies review

“…There appeared to be disagreement with perceived support of relatives on scene, with some describing relatives as helpful (see quotations 48-53 of thematic synthesis in Supplementary Material). From the parent's perspective, they found that being involved helped the assessment of their child (Jepsen et al, 2019). Other clinicians however felt that relatives hindered the pain management process (see quotations 54-56 of thematic synthesis in Supplementary Material).…”

“…Some clinicians stated that parents can be 'hysterical' (Holmström et al, 2019) and confrontational (Williams et al, 2012) which can inhibit the clinician's ability to effectively manage pain. Jepsen et al (2019) explored the parent's perspective of the care encounter with the ambulance service and highlighted the importance of a family-centred approach that included the child and parents. Therefore, clinicians should prioritise calming and relaxing the parents as this will likely be reflected in the child (Gunnvall et al, 2018).…”

“…Five studies were included in the qualitative synthesis, interviewing paramedics (Williams et al, 2012), advanced paramedics (Murphy et al, 2014), pre-hospital emergency nurses (Gunnvall et al, 2018;Holmström et al, 2019) and parents of children (Jepsen et al, 2019).…”