'Mum, I think we might ring the ambulance, okay?' A qualitative exploration of bereaved family members' experiences of emergency ambulance care at the end of life.

BACKGROUND: In the context of a sudden or unexpected event, people with a life-limiting illness and their family caregivers may be dependent on emergency ambulance services. AIM: To explore bereaved family members' experiences of emergency ambulance care at the end of life. DESIGN: A qualitative study using reflexive thematic analysis of data collected from semi-structured phone interviews. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A purposive sample of 38 family caregivers identified from a database of deaths in Aotearoa, New Zealand. RESULTS: Emergency ambulance personnel assist, inform and reassure patients and family caregivers managing distressing symptoms, falls, infections, unexpected events and death itself. Family members and patients are aware of the pressure on emergency services and sometimes hesitate to call an ambulance. Associating ambulances with unwanted transport to hospital is also a source of reluctance. CONCLUSIONS: The generalist palliative care provided by emergency ambulance personnel is a vital service for patients in the last year of life, and their caregivers. This must be acknowledged in palliative care policy and supported with training, specialist consultation and adequate resources.

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.

Support mechanisms that enable emergency nurses to cope with aggression and violence: Perspectives from New Zealand nurses.

BACKGROUND: Although efforts to reduce aggression and violence in emergency departments are important, it is also critical to minimise harm and support staff where this occurs. This research describes support mechanisms emergency nurses value when they experience occupational aggression and violence. METHODS: A mixed-methods design including thematic analysis of six interviews and descriptive analysis of fifty-one surveys, with experienced emergency nurse participants and respondents from a single large urban emergency department. RESULTS: Four key themes summarised coping with aggression and violence: Minimising exacerbating factors (mental health, lack of understanding of zero tolerance in practice, and wait times); Support before violence (use of huddles and having experienced nurses on each shift); Support during violence (education including restraint, self-defence, de-escalation and legalities); and Support after violence (debriefing, incident reporting and a sense of 'toughness') CONCLUSION: Emergency nurses need preparation and support to competently manage complex mental health presentations, understand legal rights, communicate effectively with patients, families and colleagues and access event debriefing. Security staff are valued team members but also need adequate resourcing and preparation.

When resuscitation doesn't work: A qualitative study examining ambulance personnel preparation and support for termination of resuscitation and patient death.

BACKGROUND: Many ambulance personnel can withhold or terminate resuscitation on-scene, but these decisions are emotionally, ethically and cognitively challenging. Although there is a wealth of research examining training and performance of life-saving resuscitation efforts, there is little published research examining how ambulance personnel are prepared and supported for situations where resuscitation is unsuccessful, unwanted or unwarranted. AIM: To identify and describe existing preparation and support mechanisms for ambulance personnel enacting decisions to terminate resuscitation and manage patient death in the field. METHOD: Focus groups were held with senior ambulance personnel working in clinical education and peer support roles. RESULTS: Participants believed professional and personal exposure to death and dying and positive social modelling by mentors were essential preparation for ambulance personnel terminating resuscitation and managing patient death. Ambulance personnel responded to patient death idiosyncratically. Key supports included on-scene or phone back-up during the event and informal peer and managerial support after the event. CONCLUSION: Clinical and life experience is highly-valued by ambulance personnel who provide training and support. However, novice ambulance personnel may benefit from greater awareness and rehearsal of skills associated with terminating resuscitation and managing the scene of a patient death. Organisations need to acknowledge idiosyncratic staff needs and offer a variety of support mechanisms both during and after the event.

Unlocking intuition and expertise: using interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore clinical decision making.

BACKGROUND: Clinical decision making is a complex, but important, research area. Decision-making theories have evolved to recognise that, although heuristics and biases can lead to error, expert clinician decision makers can also use intuition to good effect. More research is needed to understand how nurses and other clinicians make sense of complexity and uncertainty. AIM: This paper discusses the utility of interpretative phenomenological analysis to elucidate clinical decision making, expertise and intuition. METHODS: A narrative review of published interpretative phenomenological analysis studies exploring clinical decision-making, and discussion of an exemplar study. RESULTS: A limited number of interpretative phenomenological analysis studies have been published in this area. By seeking out descriptions of real-world decision making, interpretative phenomenological analysis research provides ecologically valid insights into what it is like to make time-critical, high-stakes decisions with limited information. CONCLUSION: Contributing to the study of complex clinical decision making in combination with other research approaches, interpretative phenomenological analysis research has significant unrealised potential to inform education, assessment and support interventions and the development of clinical guidelines. Future applications could enhance understanding of multi-disciplinary decision-making and the development of expertise and intuition, over time.

Paramedic student confidence, concerns, learning and experience with resuscitation decision-making and patient death: A pilot survey.

BACKGROUND: Around the world, many paramedics are authorised to withhold or terminate resuscitation. Research indicates this can be a challenging part of their role. Little is known about graduating paramedic student confidence, concerns and learning in this area. METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey of students nearing completion of a paramedic degree in New Zealand, including piloting of a newly-developed confidence scale. RESULTS: Seventy-two participants reported varying exposure to termination of resuscitation and patient death. Participants felt most confident providing technical procedurally-based care and least confident with non-technical skills. Participants' greatest concerns included making 'the right call', supporting grieving family, controlling emotions and encountering conflict. Clinical exposure with supportive mentoring, clinical simulation, peer reflection and resolved personal experience with death, were considered most useful for professional development. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to termination of resuscitation and management of the scene of a patient death is variable amongst graduating paramedics. Novice paramedics may benefit from opportunities to observe and rehearse non-technical skills including delivering death notification and communicating with bystanders and bereaved family. The Confidence with Resuscitation Decision-Making and Patient Death Scale has favourable psychometric properties and utility as an outcome measure for future research in this area.

Grey areas: New Zealand ambulance personnel's experiences of challenging resuscitation decision-making.

INTRODUCTION: When faced with a patient in cardiac arrest, ambulance personnel must rapidly make complex decisions with limited information. Much of the research examining decisions to commence, continue, withhold or terminate resuscitation has used retrospective audits of registry data and clinical documentation. This study offers a provider-perspective which characterises uncertainty and highlights clinical, cognitive, emotional and physical demands associated with decision-making in the cardiac arrest context. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of sixteen demographically diverse ambulance personnel, currently employed in a variety of emergency ambulance response roles across New Zealand. RESULTS: All participants readily identified clinical, cognitive, emotional and ethical challenges associated with resuscitation decision-making. Four main themes were identified: grey areas; exceptional cases; scene challenges; and personal responses. A lack of information or a mix of favourable and unfavourable prognostic factors created decision-making uncertainty or "grey areas". Exceptional cases such as first-encounters also increased uncertainty and presented emotional, ethical and clinical challenges. Cardiac arrest scenes were often challenging, and participants described managing bystander expectations and responses and logistical limitations including adverse environmental conditions, fatigue and task-overload, and crew resource management. CONCLUSION: This unique research presents a provider-perspective on the challenges faced by ambulance personnel deciding to commence, continue, withhold or terminate resuscitation efforts. Knowledge of personal values and strategies for managing personal responses appear to be central to certainty and coping. Simulated training should move beyond resuscitation task performance, to incorporate challenging elements and encourage ambulance personnel to explore their personal values, stressors and coping strategies.

Experiencing patient death in clinical practice: nurses' recollections of their earliest memorable patient death.

BACKGROUND: Death and dying are inevitable life encounters, but a nurse's first experience with patient death may pose considerable cognitive, emotional and clinical challenges. This paper reports the findings of the second phase of a study; the first has been reported elsewhere. This phase explored the earliest memorable patient death experiences of New Zealand registered nurses. METHOD: A purposeful, self-selected sub-sample of a larger study of New Zealand registered nurses, took part in individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was utilised to seek to understand participants' experiences. Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify emerging themes, with participants' own words used as theme headings, where their phrases provided succinct or powerful descriptors. RESULTS: A diverse participant group of twenty, currently practising, New Zealand registered nurses provided rich and detailed descriptions of their earliest memorable experience with patient death. Participants from a variety of training backgrounds described patient deaths, which occurred in a range of settings - some only a few months prior, others - more than thirty years ago. Seven emergent themes, and features of more positive, or negative experiences were identified: Event Significance; Emotional Challenges; Sharing the Experience; Learning; Feeling Unprepared, Responses to Death and Finding Benefits. CONCLUSION: For participants in this study, there was considerable evidence that their earliest memorable patient death was a significant event. Furthermore, although most participants' experiences were characterised by emphatic or poignant description, there was most often a balance of challenges and rewards.

Nurses' early experiences with patient death: the results of an on-line survey of Registered Nurses in New Zealand.

BACKGROUND: Death has been identified as a known stressor for nurses and has been extensively researched in nursing populations. However, very little is known about the impact of a specific stressful event; that of the novice nurse's first encounter with patient death. Using a sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed methods design, a study was undertaken to explore the clinical circumstances, impact and challenges and rewards of nurses' early experiences with patient death. This paper reports the findings of the first phase: an exploratory survey of nurses' responses to this stressor. METHOD: A convenience sample of New Zealand Registered Nurses was recruited using email invitations; 174 respondents completed an online questionnaire exploring the clinical circumstances, preparedness, support mechanisms and impact of their earliest memorable patient death. RESULTS: Most nurses reported that their earliest memory of patient death occurred during undergraduate training (61%) or in the first year of qualified practice (23%). Over 80% of these experiences occurred in acute medical, surgical or specialty settings in public hospitals, some involving paediatric or sudden unexpected deaths. Whilst some respondents described a rewarding, 'learning experience', others reported acute helplessness, guilt or marked on-going distress. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst little can be done to control the clinical circumstances of nurses' early death encounters, by understanding more about the reactions to death, it may be possible to minimise negative factors such as unexpected elements, feelings of inadequacy, exclusion and role conflicts whilst facilitating coping, sharing of the experience, personal and professional growth, and other positive outcomes. Nurses' early experiences with patient death appear to have a lasting impact on their professional and personal lives.