Home healthcare nurses’ experiences of being on stand by as a first responder in a ‘While Waiting For the Ambulance’ assignment

Abstract

The aim of the study is to describe experiences of the ‘While Waiting for the Ambulance’ (WWFA) assignment, as described by home healthcare nurses (HHCNs). Since the early 1990s, municipal resources in Sweden, preferably firefighters, have been dispatched on WWFA. In order to further assist the local residents on an island in the southwest of Sweden, HHCNs have recently begun accompanying firefighters on WWFA. A reflective lifeworld approach was used for data analysis including in-depth interviews with eight HHCNs. When WWFA was established, the HHCNs experienced lack of clarity in where their responsibilities start and end. A split role is described, and there is a paradox in that the responders are meant to collaborate toward saving lives, when the assignment itself has a lack of collaborative structure. Ethical dilemmas and inner emotional worries led to the nurses expressing a need for support before, during and after WWFA.