Balancing Between Closeness and Distance : Emergency medical services personnel’s experiences of caring for families at out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and deaths

• Introduction: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a lethal health problem thataffects between 236,000 and 325,000 people in the United States each year. As resuscitationattempts are unsuccessful in 70-98% of OHCA cases, Emergency Medical Services(EMS) personnel often face the needs of bereaved family members.Problem: Decisions to continue or terminate resuscitation at OHCA are influenced byfactors other than patient clinical characteristics, such as EMS personnel’s knowledge,attitudes, and beliefs regarding family emotional preparedness. However, there is littleresearch exploring how EMS personnel care for bereaved family members, or how theyare affected by family dynamics and the emotional contexts. The aim of this study is toanalyze EMS personnel’s experiences of caring for families when patients suffer cardiacarrest and sudden death.Methods: The study is based on a hermeneutic lifeworld approach. Qualitative interviewswere conducted with 10 EMS personnel from an EMS agency in southern Sweden.Results: The EMS personnel interviewed felt responsible for both patient care and familycare, and sometimes failed to prioritize these responsibilities as a result of their ownperceptions, feelings and reactions. Moving from patient care to family care implied amovement from well-structured guidance to a situational response, where the personnelwere forced to balance between interpretive reasoning and a more direct emotionalresponse, at their own discretion. With such affective responses in decision-making, thepersonnel risked erroneous conclusions and care relationships with elements of dishonesty,misguided benevolence and false hopes. The ability to recognize and respond to people’sexistential questions and needs was essential. It was dependent on the EMS personnel’sbalance between closeness and distance, and on their courage in facing the emotionalexpressions of the families, as well as the personnel’s own vulnerability. The presence offamily members placed great demands on mobility (moving from patient care to familycare) in the decision-making process, invoking a need for ethical competence.Conclusion: Ethical caring competence is needed in the care of bereaved family membersto avoid additional suffering. Opportunities to reflect on these situations within a frameworkof care ethics, continuous moral education, and clinical ethics training are needed.Support in dealing with personal discomfort and clear guidelines on family support couldbenefit EMS personnel.Bremer A, Dahlberg K, Sandman

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

resuscitation

sudden death

ethics

emergency medical services

experiences

lifeworld hermeneutic

Vårdvetenskap

Caring Science

Integrated Caring Science

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)