Not quite a doctor, but should I help? A qualitative exploration of medical students' attitudes towards responding to medical emergencies that occur in the public domain

Abstract

Objective: To explore medical students' views on and experiences of responding to out-of-hospital medical emergencies.

Setting: University College London (UCL).

Participants: 11 UCL Medical School students.

Study design: Qualitative.

Methods and outcome measures: We carried out 11 one-to-one semistructured interviews, with participant validation and reflective work. The data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: Three core themes were identified. (1) 'We Did Debate a Bit: Should We Go? Should We Not?'-Students' decisions to respond were based on the appearance of the casualty; the presence and actions of bystanders; witnessing the incident; self-perceived competence, confidence and knowledge; and personal experiences and feelings associated with medical emergencies. (2) 'It Would Represent the Medical Profession Well if We Did Step In and Help'-Students felt that they had an ethical and/or professional duty to help. (3) 'No One Should Die Because of a Lack of… Basic Life-Saving Techniques'-Students felt that medical school training alone had not sufficiently prepared them to respond to out-of-hospital medical emergencies. Improvements to training were suggested: integrating first aid/response training into the horizontal (systems-based) modules; teaching both common and less common medical emergencies and presentations; training that is led by experienced first responders and that increases students' exposure to out-of-hospital medical emergencies; and providing more revision training sessions.

Conclusions: Students felt that medical school training could be improved to better prepare them for responding to out-of-hospital medical emergencies, and wanted clarification on whether or not they have an ethical and/or professional duty to help. Further mixed-methods research using a larger sample needs to be carried out to confirm whether findings are transferable to other UK medical schools.

Keywords: basic life support; medical education & training; medical ethics; medical law; qualitative research.