Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Rural Medicine, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Emergency Medical Services, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Al Ahsaa, Saudi Arabia.
Health Soc Care Community. 2022 Nov;30(6):e4556-e4563. doi: 10.1111/hsc.13859. Epub 2022 May 30.
Individuals who experience a traumatic injury or an acute illness are often reliant on initial healthcare assessment and support from a pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS). These community-based support models perform a vital role in the provision of life-saving support, but research indicates that the availability, accessibility and resources of EMS are not equivalent in rural and urban areas, and there has been little recognition of the issues facing rural EMS provision outside of the USA, Europe and Australia. The purpose of the current study was to examine the lived experiences of Saudi Arabian EMS personnel, defined as emergency medical technicians, paramedics and local station managers. A semi-structured interview approach was used to collect data from 20 interviewees (10 each with rural and urban personnel) in the Riyadh region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This methodology was used to identify the key issues that these staff face in their day-to-day work practice and ascertain factors that may lead to service delivery issues in rural and urban areas. Data analyses identified three thematic categories impacting EMS delivery; two of these, Personnel Factors and Patient Factors, are the focus of this paper. The participants noted a number of key issues, including a lack of appropriate local training and limited resources in rural areas, as well as general areas of concern regarding the wider EMS staff demographic makeup and poor public awareness about the exact role of the EMS. Three key recommendations arising from this study include specialised training and ongoing accessible education for rural EMS staff to allow for better support for patients; consideration of supplementing the current EMS with additional external specialist staff; and the development and implementation of national public education programmes focusing on the role of the EMS within the community.
经历创伤性损伤或急性疾病的个体通常依赖于院前紧急医疗服务（EMS）的初步医疗评估和支持。这些基于社区的支持模式在提供救生支持方面发挥着至关重要的作用，但研究表明，农村和城市地区的 EMS 可用性、可及性和资源并不均等，而且除了美国、欧洲和澳大利亚之外，很少有人认识到农村 EMS 提供所面临的问题。本研究的目的是研究沙特阿拉伯 EMS 人员（定义为急救技术员、护理人员和当地站经理）的生活体验。采用半结构化访谈方法从沙特阿拉伯王国利雅得地区的 20 名受访者（农村和城市各 10 名）中收集数据。这种方法用于确定这些员工在日常工作实践中面临的关键问题，并确定可能导致农村和城市地区服务提供问题的因素。数据分析确定了影响 EMS 交付的三个主题类别；其中两个，人员因素和患者因素，是本文的重点。参与者指出了一些关键问题，包括农村地区缺乏适当的本地培训和有限的资源，以及对更广泛的 EMS 员工人口统计构成和公众对 EMS 确切角色缺乏了解的普遍关注。这项研究提出了三项关键建议，包括为农村 EMS 员工提供专门培训和持续的可访问教育，以更好地支持患者；考虑在当前的 EMS 中补充额外的外部专业人员；以及制定和实施国家公共教育计划，重点关注 EMS 在社区中的作用。
