The aim of this PhD project is to investigate ambulance workers' knowledge and experiences to assess the right to self-determination and capacity to consent in prehospital meetings with patients with mental health illnesses and/or drug-related issues.
Our overall motivation is to improve quality of healthcare to patients in ambulance services.
We use exploratory sequential mixed method design, meaning that findings from substudy one with focus groups (qualitative method) are used to build sub-study two using a questionnaire which will be distributed to ambulance workers in Norway to investigate the views and experiences identified through the focus groups, in a larger population (quantitative method).
Integrated results from both methods will be discussed together in the PhD dissertation to illuminate the aim of the project, and we will make recommendations for policy, training of ambulance workers, and clinical work.
Participants
More about the project
The objectives of sub-study one (qualitative study) are:
- To explore ambulance workers attitudes and approach towards adult PaMD.
- To gain a better understanding of ambulance workers clinical reasoning when assessing patients’ right to self-determination and mental capacity to consent.
- To investigate what ambulance workers know about relevant laws, regulations, ethical principles and local guidelines regarding self-determination and capacity to consent.
- To gain a better understanding how ambulance workers approach clinical situations where laws, regulations, guidelines, and ethical principles appear to be mutually contradictory.
The objective of sub-study two (quantitative study) is to investigate the views and experiences identified through the focus groups in a larger sample of ambulance workers and test assumptions
The integrated results from sub-study one and two will allow us to make clinical recommendations for policy, training and clinical work.
Partner institutions
Akershus University Hospital
