Being first on the scene of an accident--experiences of 'doing' prehospital emergency care.

Prehospital emergency care includes the care and treatment of patients prior to them reaching hospital. This is generally a field for the ambulance services, but in many cases firemen or police can be the ones to provide the first responses. The aim of this study was to describe and understand experiences of being the first responder on the scene of an accident, as described by policemen, firemen and ambulance staff. A lifeworld perspective was used in four different traumatic situations from southern Sweden. The data consisted of 13 unstructured interviews with first responders. The phenomenological analysis showed that experiences of being the first responder on the scene of an accident is expectations of doing a systematic course of action, dressed in the role of a hero, and at the same time being genuine in an interpersonal encounter. This entails a continuous movement between 'being' and 'doing'. It is not a question of either - or, instead everything is to be understood in relation to each other at the same time. Five constituents further described the variations of the phenomenon; a feeling of security in the uncertainty, a distanced closeness to the injured person, one moment in an eternity, cross-border cooperation within distinct borders and a need to make the implicit explicit. This finding highlights the importance of using policemen and firemen in doing life support measures while waiting for the ambulance staff, and would in turn increase the importance of the relationship between the different professionals on the scene of an accident.