Improving Psychological Comfort of Paramedics for Field Termination of Resuscitation through Structured Training

Chungli Bang, Desmond Ren Hao Mao, Rebacca Chew Ying Cheng, Jen Heng Pek, Mihir Gandhi, Shalini Arulanandam, Marcus Eng Hock Ong and Stella Quah
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Chungli Bang: Acute & Emergency Care Department, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, 90 Yishun Central, Singapore 768828, Singapore
Desmond Ren Hao Mao: Acute & Emergency Care Department, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, 90 Yishun Central, Singapore 768828, Singapore
Rebacca Chew Ying Cheng: Acute & Emergency Care Department, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, 90 Yishun Central, Singapore 768828, Singapore
Jen Heng Pek: Emergency Department, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore 544886, Singapore
Mihir Gandhi: Biostatistics, Singapore Clinical Research Institute, Singapore 138669, Singapore
Shalini Arulanandam: Emergency Medical Services Department, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Singapore 408827, Singapore
Marcus Eng Hock Ong: Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore 169857, Singapore
Stella Quah: Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore 169857, Singapore

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: This study examines the impact of a newly developed structured training on Singapore paramedics’ psychological comfort before the implementation of a prehospital termination of resuscitation (TOR) protocol. Following a before and after study design, the paramedics underwent a self-administered questionnaire to assess their psychological comfort level applying the TOR protocol, 22 months before and one month after a 3-h structured training session. The questionnaire addressed five domains: sociocultural attitudes on resuscitation and TOR, multi-tasking, feelings towards resuscitation and TOR, interactions with colleagues and bystanders and informing survivors. Overall psychological comfort total (PCT) scores and domain-specific scores were compared using the paired t-test with higher scores representing greater comfort. Ninety-six of the 345 eligible paramedics responded. There was no statistically significant change in the mean PCT scores at baseline and post-training; however, the “feelings towards resuscitation and TOR” domain improved by 4.77% (95% CI 1.42 to 8.13 and p = 0.006) and the multi-tasking domain worsened by 4.11% (95% CI −7.82 to −0.41 and p = 0.030). While the structured training did not impact on the overall psychological comfort levels, it led to improvements in the feelings of paramedics towards resuscitation and TOR. Challenges remain in improving paramedics’ psychological comfort levels towards TOR.

Keywords: termination of resuscitation; psychological comfort; paramedics; Asian; training for termination of resuscitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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