Open AccessEmergency medical technicians' experiences with unplanned births outside institutions: A qualitative interview study
Author(s) -
Vagle Hanne,
Haukeland Gunn Terese,
Dahl Bente,
Aasheim Vigdis,
Vik Eline Skirnisdottir
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nursing open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.55
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 2054-1058
DOI - 10.1002/nop2.354
Subject(s) - qualitative research , competence (human resources) , nursing , medical education , psychology , medicine , family medicine , medical emergency , sociology , social psychology , social science
Aim To explore emergency medical technicians' experiences with unplanned births outside institutions. Design A qualitative interview study. Methods Individual semi‐structured interviews with 12 emergency medical technicians in Norway. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data material. Results Analysis showed that there is a mismatch between society's expectations about emergency medical technicians and the reality they encounter in out‐of‐hospital maternity care, that emergency medical technicians experience a general lack of training in caring for labouring women and that poor communication with other health professions challenges patient safety. The participants expressed how they do their best in caring for both mother and child, in spite of a lack of education, training and competence in assisting labouring women.