Emergency medical dispatchers’ experiences of managing emergency calls: a qualitative interview study

OBJECTIVES: To explore the emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) experiences of managing emergency medical calls. DESIGN: A qualitative interview study with an inductive approach. EMDs were interviewed individually using a semistructured interview guide. The verbatim transcripts were analysed using a qualitative content analysis. SETTING: EMDs, without a professional background as registered nurses, were recruited from emergency medical communication centers (EMCCs) within Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: To achieve a varied description of EMDs’ experiences, participants were included from several EMCCs nationally, using a convenience sampling. Interviews were performed up until saturation of data, resulting in 13 EMDs from 7 EMCCs being interviewed. All the EMDs were women, ranging in age from 28 to 61 years (mean 42 years), and had worked in emergency medical dispatching between 1 and 13.5 years (mean 6.5 years). RESULTS: The analysis revealed the main category—to attentively manage a multifaceted, interactive task—made up of three categories: utilize creativity to gather information, continuously process and assess complex information, and engage in the professional role. The content of each category was reflected in several subcategories further described and illustrated with representative quotes. CONCLUSIONS: Managing emergency medical calls was experienced by EMDs to attentively manage a multifaceted interactive task. Core parts were described as: the ability to utilize creativity to gather information, continuously process and asses complex information, and engage in the professional role. Our results could be beneficial for emergency care managers when designing training programmes and organising EMD work and the EMD work environment, including further development of dispatch protocols and implementation of regular feedback sessions. Moreover, the results indicate that aspects such as self-awareness and emotional challenges encountered during EMD work could be important matters to discuss during staff evaluations.