TY - JOUR

T1 - "Like a rainy weather inside of me"

T2 - Qualitative content analysis of telephone consultations concerning back pain preceding out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

AU - Jensen, Britta

AU - Vardinghus-Nielsen, Henrik

AU - Mills, Elisabeth Helen Anna

AU - Møller, Amalie Lykkemark

AU - Gnesin, Filip

AU - Zylyftari, Nertila

AU - Kragholm, Kristian

AU - Folke, Fredrik

AU - Christensen, Helle Collatz

AU - Blomberg, Stig Nikolaj

AU - Torp-Pedersen, Christian

AU - Boggild, Henrik

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Introduction: Cardiac arrest patients presenting with back pain are at risk of not receiving the appropriate help when calling emergency medical services. In telephone consultations regarding patients with back pain pre-ceding an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, we investigated how communication between caller and call-taker influenced the call-taker's interpretation of back pain descriptions and decision-making about choice of response.Method: The study was conducted using 20 recorded phone calls from 17 patients who contacted the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services (Denmark) reporting back pain up to 24 hours before an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Qualitative content analysis was applied.Results: Two main categories emerged: (1) reasons, including subcategories: reported conditions, descriptions of conditions, patient's interpretation of condition and patient's own remedial actions; and (2) considerations, including subcategories: assessment of the severity, call-taker's interpretation of the condition, arguments for chosen response and conditions not facilitating further communication by the call-taker.Conclusion: In telephone consultations regarding patients with back pain preceding an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest the communication was influenced by the communicative preconditions of the call-taker. Communication in consultations where ambulances were not dispatched was characterized by complex descriptions of symptoms not easily fitting into the health system's interpretations of conditions warranting an urgent response.

AB - Introduction: Cardiac arrest patients presenting with back pain are at risk of not receiving the appropriate help when calling emergency medical services. In telephone consultations regarding patients with back pain pre-ceding an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, we investigated how communication between caller and call-taker influenced the call-taker's interpretation of back pain descriptions and decision-making about choice of response.Method: The study was conducted using 20 recorded phone calls from 17 patients who contacted the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services (Denmark) reporting back pain up to 24 hours before an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Qualitative content analysis was applied.Results: Two main categories emerged: (1) reasons, including subcategories: reported conditions, descriptions of conditions, patient's interpretation of condition and patient's own remedial actions; and (2) considerations, including subcategories: assessment of the severity, call-taker's interpretation of the condition, arguments for chosen response and conditions not facilitating further communication by the call-taker.Conclusion: In telephone consultations regarding patients with back pain preceding an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest the communication was influenced by the communicative preconditions of the call-taker. Communication in consultations where ambulances were not dispatched was characterized by complex descriptions of symptoms not easily fitting into the health system's interpretations of conditions warranting an urgent response.

KW - Out -of -hospital cardiac arrest

KW - Back pain

KW - Early warning signs

KW - Symptoms

KW - Emergency medical services

KW - Communication

KW - Qualitative content analysis

KW - Systems theory

KW - CARE

U2 - 10.1016/j.ienj.2022.101200

DO - 10.1016/j.ienj.2022.101200

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35926318

VL - 64

JO - International Emergency Nursing

JF - International Emergency Nursing

SN - 1755-599X

M1 - 101200

ER -