Doctoral Dissertation
Challenges in prehospital emergency care
Patient, spouse and personnel perspectives
Kerstin Forslund
Caring Sciences with focus on Nursing
Örebro Studies in Caring Sciences 16
örebro 2007 issn 1652-1153 isbn 978-91-7668-554-9
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Kerstin Forslund is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in nursing. She has previously worked in emergency, primary and community care settings, as well as on general medical and surgical units. As a research assistant in 1998 she began her work on a project at the Centre for Health Care Sciences, Örebro University Hospital where this thesis had its beginnings. During the past few years she has de-voted her time as a junior lecturer in the School of Nursing Sciences at Örebro University and on her doctoral studies at the Department of Health Sciences, Örebro University.
The call to the Emergency Medical Dispatch centre and the prehospital emer-gency care that occurs before a patient reaches the hospital is often a person’s first contact with the health- care system in cases of illness or injury. Challenges exist throughout the prehospital phase and the margin for error is small. This thesis illuminates the challenges inherent in prehospital emergency care from the perspective of the patients, their spouses, the emergency operators, the registered nurses and ambulance personnel.
