Beyond prognostication: ambulance personnel's lived experiences of cardiac arrest decision-making.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to explore ambulance personnel's decisions to commence, continue, withhold or terminate resuscitation efforts for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
METHOD: Semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 16 demographically diverse ambulance personnel, currently employed in a variety of emergency ambulance response roles, around New Zealand.
RESULTS: Participants sought and integrated numerous factors, beyond established prognostic indicators, when making resuscitation decisions. Factors appeared to be integrated in four distinct phases, described under four main identified themes: prearrival impressions, immediate on-scene impressions, piecing together the big picture and transition to termination of resuscitation. Commencing or continuing resuscitation was sometimes a default action, particularly where ambulance personnel felt the context was uncertain, unfamiliar or overwhelming. Managing the impact of termination of resuscitation and resulting scene of a death required significant confidence, psychosocial skills and experience.
CONCLUSION: This unique, exploratory study provides new insights into ambulance personnel's experiences of prehospital resuscitation decision-making. Prognostication in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is known to be challenging, but results from this study suggest that confidence in a poor prognosis for the cardiac arrested patient is only part of the resuscitation decision-making picture. Results suggest ambulance personnel may benefit from greater educational preparation and mentoring in managing the scene of a death to avoid inappropriate or prolonged resuscitation efforts. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.