Xie, JY-Y;
Frost, R;
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)
, Article e028035. 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028035.
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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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | 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 |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028035 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028035 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072590 |
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