Jonas Wihlborg

Patient satisfaction with ambulance care services: survey from two districts in southern Sweden.

INTRODUCTION One of several quality indicators that are relevant to study is patients satisfaction with health care in the ambulance services. Regular measurements of patient satisfaction in this field have not been carried out previously and a validated method of measurement is lacking. PURPOSE This study aimed to measure patient satisfaction with health care in the ambulance services in Region Skane, southern Sweden. METHOD Data collection was performed by a patient questionnaire, Davis Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale© (CECSS). The study was conducted in two of the regions ambulance districts, and 40 patients (20 informants from each of the two sites) were included in the study. RESULTS Of the included patients 67% were women (n=27) and 33% men (n=13) with an average age of 65.6years (r=22-87). Informants average time of care in the ambulance was 31 min (r=12-75). A majority of the responses (93.1%) showed the most positive response option on each question position. CONCLUSION The present study shows that patients within ambulance care in the region of southern Sweden were pleased with the care received and the competence of the ambulance staff, and the patients experienced a high level of psychological and physical sense of security.

The desired competence of the Swedish ambulance nurse according to the professionals - A Delphi study

Nursing is evolving into new fields of health care including ambulance care, where a branch of specialist nursing is growing. Various views exist on the desired competence for the ambulance nurse and valid guidelines are lacking in Sweden. To increase knowledge of the field, professionals were asked to describe what competences an ambulance nurse should possess. The aim of this study was therefore to elucidate the desired professional competence of the specialist ambulance nurse, according to the professionals. A modified Delphi technique was used, where a panel of professional experts expressed their views on the desired competence of the ambulance nurse. This study reports, at a high level of agreement among the panel experts, that the desired competence of the specialist ambulance nurse consist of forty-four separate competences creating ten areas of competences: execute leadership, generic abilities, interpersonal communication, institutional collaboration, pedagogic skills, possession of relevant knowledge, professional judgement, professional skills, research activities, and technical skills. The high level of agreement among the professionals as well as the large number of competences reflects the high demands placed on the ambulance nurse by the professionals themselves.