Ambulance Clinicians’ Experiences of Attending OHCA in Children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring UK Ambulance Clinicians’ Experiences of Attending Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Incidents Involving Children: A Mixed Methods Study
IRAS ID
344286
Contact name
Adam Mellett-Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
This research will explore ambulance clinicians’ experiences of attending out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidents involving children.
OHCA occurs when the heart stops beating. This is a time critical emergency that requires immediate treatment to maximise the changes of survival. OHCA affecting children is rare, but when it happens it is vital that paramedics and other ambulance clinicians can respond and deliver high quality care.
Because OHCA in children is rare, ambulance clinicians attend these incidents infrequently. Some clinicians may only ever attend this type of incident once in their career. These incidents are technically challenging for ambulance clinicians, and highly stressful. Evidence from other setting suggests that clinicians may be ill-prepared to manage these events.
Our research aims to understand how OHCA incidents involving children are currently managed, and to explore the views and experiences of ambulance clinicians with respect to attending OHCA incidents involving children.
By learning from what is currently being done, and from clinicians’ experiences, we aim to develop recommendations for how the response to these patients, and the support we provide to ambulance clinicians, could be improved.
We will review the records of patients under the age of 18 who have been treated for OHCA by one ambulance service over a four-year period. We will collect data from these records to allow us to compare the care to international guidelines, and to explore what factors might influence the delivery of this care.
We will also survey ambulance clinicians working across the UK to understand their experiences, and how prepared they feel to attend these incidents. Finally, we will undertake interviews with clinicians who have been involved in the management of a child with OHCA and focus group discussions with specialist clinicians to allow us to learn from their experiences.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EM/0268
Date of REC Opinion
18 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion