Prioritering vid utlarmning i prehospital vård

Sammanfattning: It is important that ambulances are urgently directed to patients who are in need of immediate help and of quick transportation to a hospital. Because resources are limited, emergency medical dispatch centres (EMD) cannot send ambulances with high priority to all callers. The efficiency of the system is therefore dependent on triage. Increased knowledge about the triage in the prehospital care can make it possible to optimize the use of resources. Traditionally nurses have an important role in triage on emergency departments and in telephone advisory. In Sweden there is a trend towards more triage by nurses at EMDs. It is important to survey experiences of nurses’ of prioritization at EMDs.Aim: The overall aim in this thesis was to measure effectivity in prioritisation of ambulance dispatches, and to elucidate experiences from these prioritizations and decisions.Method: In study I sensitivity and specificity in 4086 dispatches was calculated, by comparison of the priority given by the EMD and the assessment performed by the ambulance-nurse according to Medical Emergency Triage and Treatment System. In study II were 15 nurses interviewed about their experiences from prioritizations at an EMD.Result: The result showed that 84,5 % of the dispatches were correct prioritised and that the sensitivity was high (94,5 %) but the specificity was low (15,4 %). Content analysis was performed and two themes emerged: “Having a profession with opportunities and obstacles” and “Meeting serious and difficult situations”. Conclusions are that over- prioritizations are made concerning patients with low or no need of medical care. Also that nurses with experience from emergency care, who are allowed to make their own decisions independent of the medical index, can improve and nuance the prioritization of resources in prehospital care. However, there is an obvious risk that their assessments will tend to be on the safe side. Important for avoiding this is improving internal support systems at the EMDs and also striving for a blame-free culture, where the nurses are not pushed by threats of being reported.