@article{ref1,
title="Reducing time to first on scene: an ambulance-community first responder scheme",
journal="Emergency medicine international",
year="2016",
author="Campbell, Alan and Ellington, Matt",
volume="2016",
number="",
pages="e1915895-e1915895",
abstract="The importance of early access to prehospital care has been demonstrated in many medical emergencies. This work aims to describe the potential time benefit of implementing a student Community First Responder scheme to support ambulance services in an inner-city setting in the United Kingdom. Twenty final and penultimate year medical students in the UK were trained in the &quot;First Person on Scene&quot; Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualification. Over 12 months, they attended 89 emergency calls in an inner-city setting as Community First Responders (CFRs), alongside the West Midlands Ambulance Service, UK. At the end of this period, a qualitative survey investigated the perceived educational value of the scheme. The mean CFR response time across all calls was an average of 3 minutes and 8 seconds less than ambulance crew response times. The largest difference was to calls relating to falls (12 min). The difference varied throughout the day, peaking between 16:00 and 18:00. All questionnaire respondents stated that they felt more prepared in assessing and treating acutely unwell patients. In this paper, the authors present a symbiotic solution which has both reduced time to first on scene and provided training and experience in medical emergencies for senior medical students.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2090-2840",
doi="10.1155/2016/1915895",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1915895"
}