"Time that save lives" while waiting for ambulance in rural environments.

Aim: Firefighters perform first aid before the ambulance arrives in areas with a long response time in Sweden; this is called 'While Waiting for the Ambulance' (WWFA). The aim was to describe WWFA assignments in rural environments, focusing on frequency, event time, actions and survival >30 days after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive and comparative design.

Lone and lonely in a double ambivalence situation as experienced by callers while waiting for the ambulance in a rural environment.

Background: In a rural environment where distances and access to ambulance resources in people's immediate area are limited, other responders like firefighters dispatched to perform a first aid before ambulance arrives in areas where a longer response time exists; an assignment called 'While Waiting for the Ambulance' (WWFA). Knowledge is limited about the experience from a caller's perspective when a person has a life-threatening condition needing emergency help and both firefighters in a WWFA assignment and ambulance staff are involved.

Aim: The aim of the study is to describe the emergency situation involving a WWFA assignment in a rural environment from the caller's perspective.

Communication and protocol compliance and their relation to the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): A mixed-methods study of simulated telephone-assisted CPR.

Background: In the event of a cardiac arrest, emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) play a critical role by providing telephone-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (T-CPR) to laypersons. The aim of our investigation was to describe compliance with the T-CPR protocol, the performance of the laypersons in a simulated T-CPR situation, and the communication between laypersons and EMDs during these actions.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study by analysing 20 recorded video and audio files.