Lay rescuers’ perceptions of the CPR instructions provided by ambulance service and of alternate wording

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is common (3000/year in Scotland/ 3.8 million/year worldwide) and serious: only around 1 in 10 people survive OHCA.

Immediate high-quality CPR (where a rescuer presses hard and fast on the chest until emergency services arrive) is the single most effective intervention, improving survival up to 4-fold. However, CPR is often not initiated promptly enough, even when call-handlers provide instructions.

Dr Barbara Farquharson (University of Stirling) and colleagues have been working with behaviour change experts and ambulance call-handlers to enhance telephone CPR instructions:  incorporating behaviour change techniques into call-handler scripting in order to help callers overcome barriers. This PhD will contribute to that work.

Engaging with people who have recently provided CPR in an OHCA, the PhD will address the following research questions: 

• What are lay-peoples’ recollections and perceptions of the CPR instructions they were given (by ambulance service call-handlers)?
• How do peoples’ recollections compare with the recording of their actual 999 call?
• What are the views of those with recent lived experience of providing CPR about the developed alternate behaviourally-informed call-handler instructions? 

Methods:  qualitative interviews, including comparative analysis with 999 call-recordings.