Xie, JYY, Frost, R and Meakin, R (2019) Not quite a doctor, but should i help? A qualitative exploration of medical students' attitudes towards responding to medical emergencies that occur in the public domain. BMJ Open, 9 (4). ISSN 2044-6055

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Abstract

Objective To explore medical students' views on and experiences of responding to out-of-hospital medical emergencies. Setting University College London (UCL). Participants 11 UCL Medical School students. Study design Qualitative. Methods and outcome measures We carried out 11 one-To-one semistructured interviews, with participant validation and reflective work. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Three core themes were identified. (1) 'We Did Debate a Bit: Should We Go? Should We Not?'-Students' decisions to respond were based on the appearance of the casualty; the presence and actions of bystanders; witnessing the incident; self-perceived competence, confidence and knowledge; and personal experiences and feelings associated with medical emergencies. (2) 'It Would Represent the Medical Profession Well if We Did Step In and Help'-Students felt that they had an ethical and/or professional duty to help. (3) 'No One Should Die Because of a Lack of.. Basic Life-Saving Techniques'-Students felt that medical school training alone had not sufficiently prepared them to respond to out-of-hospital medical emergencies. Improvements to training were suggested: integrating first aid/response training into the horizontal (systems-based) modules; teaching both common and less common medical emergencies and presentations; training that is led by experienced first responders and that increases students' exposure to out-of-hospital medical emergencies; and providing more revision training sessions. Conclusions Students felt that medical school training could be improved to better prepare them for responding to out-of-hospital medical emergencies, and wanted clarification on whether or not they have an ethical and/or professional duty to help. Further mixed-methods research using a larger sample needs to be carried out to confirm whether findings are transferable to other UK medical schools.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans; Emergencies; Attitude of Health Personnel; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Qualitative Research; Clinical Competence; Students, Medical; Adult; Delivery of Health Care; Female; Male; Emergency Responders; basic life support; medical education & training; medical ethics; medical law; qualitative research; Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Clinical Competence; Delivery of Health Care; Emergencies; Emergency Responders; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Qualitative Research; Students, Medical; 1103 Clinical Sciences; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions:	Nursing & Allied Health
Publisher:	BMJ
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	08 Dec 2023 13:05
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2023 13:15
DOI or ID number:	10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028035
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22040

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