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Completed

NCT Number: NCT04279262

Community First Responders' Role in the Current and Future Rural Health and Care Workforce

Community First Responders (CFRs) are trained members of the public, lay people or off-duty healthcare staff who volunteer to provide first aid. CFRs help ambulance services to provide care for people having health emergencies, from falls to road accidents to heart attacks, at home or in public places. CFRs are particularly important in rural areas where it is more difficult to provide or access emergency care, and where they are an important part of the care workforce. CFRs are broadly perceived to be positive, however evidence is needed about how they contribute to rural health services, which patients/conditions they attend, what care they provide, how effective they are and at what cost, how they are perceived by patients and other health workers, and how they could be developed to improve care for rural communities.

The investigators aim to develop recommendations for rural CFRs, by exploring their contribution to rural care, evaluating their value for money, understanding experiences and views of patients, CFRs and other healthcare staff, and exploring the potential for CFRs to provide new services.

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Key information

Conditions

Emergency Medical Services

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Community and Health Research Unit, University of Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN5 7AY, United Kingdom

About this study

The project will involve the following steps:

  • Analyse records from six ambulance services to see: how many people CFRs attended; the proportion of ambulance calls attended; age, sex and conditions of people attended; how quickly CFRs attended and what happened to the patient(s) when the ambulance arrived.
  • Evaluate benefits and costs of CFRs attending rural emergencies.
  • Interview patients/relatives, ambulance staff, GPs, funders, CFRs and CFR leads to obtain views on rural CFR current and potential future roles. Interviews will also explore with CFRs and CFR leads, challenges and solutions to recruiting, training, retaining rural CFRs and ensuring safe, high quality care.
  • Combine this knowledge (gained in steps1-3 above) to develop recommendations for change; who will be involved and how services should change to solve the most pressing problems for the rural communities served.
  • Present recommendations to a workshop of experts and public to agree priorities for future development.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Adults capable of giving informed consent. The investigators will recruit a maximum variation sample of patients (according to age, sex, condition, and ethnicity), ambulance staff (sex, experience, ethnicity and role), CFR (sex, ethnicity, length of experience, skill level) and CFR scheme leads (independent charity and ambulance trust overseen schemes).

Exclusion criteria

  • The investigators will exclude children and adults who are unable to give informed consent from this study.

London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is not included as it is mainly urban; East of England Ambulance Service and North East Ambulance Service are not included because of lack of electronic data.

Treatment and study plan

attendance by community first responders for medical emergencies

Other

The investigators will purposively sample patients, relatives, and ambulance staff identified from records of patients who have been attended by a CFR in a rural location in the previous six months. Where possible the investigators will interview patients, relatives, CFRs and ambulance staff attending the same event. GPs will be purposively sampled from rural areas of the ambulance services involved. Investigators will recruit a maximum variation sample of patients (according to age, sex, condition, and ethnicity), ambulance staff (sex, experience, ethnicity and role), CFR (sex, ethnicity, length of experience, skill level) and CFR scheme leads (independent charity and ambulance trust overseen schemes).

Primary outcomes

  1. Number of ambulance calls that CFRs attend in one year

    Time frame: we will evaluate all emergency attendances during one year

    We will establish how many people CFRs attended and work out the proportion of ambulance calls attended.

  2. The type of cases treated by CFRs

    Time frame: we will evaluate all emergency attendances during one year

    characteristics of people (age, sex, condition) attended

  3. How quickly cases are dealt with

    Time frame: we will evaluate all emergency attendances during one year

    how quickly they attend

  4. Treatments given and transfer to hospital

    Time frame: we will evaluate all emergency attendances during one year

    we will evaluate the treatments provided and the number of cases transferred to hospital

  5. Locations

    Time frame: we will evaluate all emergency attendances during one year

    We will describe rurality and location (eg. at home or elsewhere) where CFRs give treatment.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Perceptions of CFR schemes

    Time frame: participants will have been involved in a CFR attendance in the previous 6 months

    We will interview different stakeholders (patients, CFRs, GPs, ambulance staff, CFR leads)

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Lincoln

Other

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2020
Primary completion
2022
Study completion
2022
First posted
Feb 21, 2020
Registry last updated
Dec 16, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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