ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2015
Reassurance as a key outcome valued by emergency ambulance service users: a qualitative interview study.
Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Perceptions and experiences of residents and relatives of emergencies in care homes: a systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative research.Age and ageing · 2021Pooled it
- Caring science research in the ambulance services: an integrative systematic review.Scandinavian journal of caring sciences · 2019Pooled it
- Why Do People Choose Emergency and Urgent Care Services? A Rapid Review Utilizing a Systematic Literature Search and Narrative Synthesis.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Why do patients with 'primary care sensitive' problems access ambulance services? A systematic mapping review of the literature.BMJ open · 2015Pooled it
- Cardiorespiratory and Glycaemic Changes Following Prehospital Nebulised Salbutamol in Acute Asthma: A Mixed Retrospective and Prospective Observational Study.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2026Article
- Attitudes of emergency healthcare workers on electric vehicle accidents: a descriptive study.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring two-step and one-step urgent care telephone triage: a UK-based semi-structured interview study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- A Practical Example of How to Apply Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology: Exploring Patient Experiences During Paramedic Led Healthcare.Research in nursing & health · 2025Article
- Could low-acuity emergency medical services patients be redirected to primary care? Findings from a multi-center survey in Berlin, Germany.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Observational
- Article
- Ambulance service satisfaction level and associated factors among service users in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Patient, family member, and ambulance staff experiences of prehospital acute pain management in adults: A systematic review and meta-synthesis.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2023Article
- Prehospital emergency care patient satisfaction scale [PECPSS] for care provided by emergency medical teams: Scale development and validation.AIMS public health · 2023Article
- The experiences and perceptions of wellbeing provision among English ambulance services staff: a multi-method qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Article
- Altruism in Paramedicine: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- How Patients Who Are Transported by Ambulance Experience Dyspnea and the Use of a Dyspnea Scale: A Qualitative Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Satisfaction among non-conveyed patients and significant others when discharged at the scene by the ambulance service: an exploratory cross-sectional survey.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Article
- An integrative review of the use of the concept of reassurance in clinical practice.Nursing open · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is an increasing need to assess the performance of emergency ambulance services using measures other than the time taken for an ambulance to arrive on scene. In line with government policy, patients and carers can help to shape new measures of ambulance service performance.
objectiveTo investigate the aspects of emergency ambulance service care valued by users.
designQualitative interview study.
settingOne of 11 ambulance services in England.
participantsTwenty-two users and eight of their spouses (n = 30).
resultsUsers of the emergency ambulance service, experiencing different types of ambulance service response, valued similar aspects of their pre-hospital care. Users were often extremely anxious about their health, and the outcome they valued was reassurance provided by ambulance service staff that they were receiving appropriate advice, treatment and care. This sense of being reassured was enhanced by the professional behaviour of staff, which instilled confidence in their care; communication; a short wait for help; and continuity during transfers. A timely response was valued in terms of allaying anxiety quickly. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsThe ability of the emergency ambulance service to allay the high levels of fear and anxiety felt by users is crucial to the delivery of a high quality service. Measures developed to assess and monitor the performance of emergency ambulance services should include the proportion of users reporting feeling reassured by the response they obtained.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.