‘‘A call for a clear assignment” – A focus group study of the ambulance service in Sweden, as experienced by present and former employees

Aim

The aim was to explore the ambulance service as experienced by present and former employees.
Background

Over the last decade, the number of ambulance assignments has increased annually by about 10%, and as many as 50% of all ambulance assignments are considered non-urgent. This raises questions about which assignments the Ambulance Service (AS) is supposed to deal with.
Design/method

Data were collected from three focus group interviews with a total of 18 present and former employees of the Swedish AS. An inductive qualitative analysis method developed by Krueger was chosen.
Results

Five themes emerged in the analysis: “Poor guidance for practice”, “An unclear assignment”, “Being a gate keeper”, “From saving lives to self-care” and “Working in no man’s land”, which together constitute the AS.
Conclusion

Present and former employees of the AS in Sweden describe their mission as unclear and recognize the lack of consensus and a clearly developed mission statement. Furthermore, expectations and training mainly focus on emergency response, which is contrary to the reality of the ambulance clinicians’ everyday work.