Managing Medical Emergency Calls
Författare
Summary, in English
This dissertation is a conversation analytic examination of recurrent practices of interaction in medical
emergency calls. The study expands the analytical focus in past research on emergency calls between
emergency call operators and callers to pre-hospital emergency care interaction on the phone between
nurses, physicians and callers. The investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish emergency
control centre. The data used for the study consists primarily of audio recordings of medical emergency calls.
Fundamental procedures in medical emergency calls examined in the dissertation are: (1) questioning; (2)
emotion management; (3) risk management and (4) instruction giving. Emergency call-takers ask questions to
elicit descriptions by callers of what is happening and to manage symptoms of patients to help keep them safe
until ambulance crews arrive. In the questioning practice about acutely ill or injured patients call-takers use
mainly yes-no questions and clarify problems by questioning callers making a distinction between defined and
undefined problems. The analysis reveals four core types of emotion management practices: (1) call-takers
keep themselves calm when managing callers’ social displays of emotions; (2) promising ambulance
assistance; (3) providing problem solving presentations including emergency response measures to concerns
of callers, and (4) emphasising the positive to create hope for callers. Call-takers use seven key procedures to
manage risk in medical emergency calls: (1) risk listening through active listening after actual and possible
risks; (2) risk questioning; (3) risk identification; (4) risk monitoring; (5) risk assessment; (6) making decisions
about elicited risk and (7) risk reduction. Instruction giving using directives and recommendations is
accomplished by call-takers in four main ways: (1) acute flow maintaining instruction giving when callers are
procedurally out of line; (2) measure oriented instructions for patient care and emergency response
management; (3) organisational response instructions and (4) summarising instruction giving. Callers routinely
acknowledge risk identifications and follow instructions delivered by call-takers to examine statuses and life
signs of patients such as breathing, movement and pulse, and perform basic first aid and emergency response
measures.
The findings generated from this study will be useful in emergency call-taker training in carrying out interactive
procedures in medical emergency calls and add to the larger research programmes on on-telephone
interaction between professionals and citizen callers. This is an essential book for pre-hospital emergency care
providers and institutional interaction researchers and students.
emergency calls. The study expands the analytical focus in past research on emergency calls between
emergency call operators and callers to pre-hospital emergency care interaction on the phone between
nurses, physicians and callers. The investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish emergency
control centre. The data used for the study consists primarily of audio recordings of medical emergency calls.
Fundamental procedures in medical emergency calls examined in the dissertation are: (1) questioning; (2)
emotion management; (3) risk management and (4) instruction giving. Emergency call-takers ask questions to
elicit descriptions by callers of what is happening and to manage symptoms of patients to help keep them safe
until ambulance crews arrive. In the questioning practice about acutely ill or injured patients call-takers use
mainly yes-no questions and clarify problems by questioning callers making a distinction between defined and
undefined problems. The analysis reveals four core types of emotion management practices: (1) call-takers
keep themselves calm when managing callers’ social displays of emotions; (2) promising ambulance
assistance; (3) providing problem solving presentations including emergency response measures to concerns
of callers, and (4) emphasising the positive to create hope for callers. Call-takers use seven key procedures to
manage risk in medical emergency calls: (1) risk listening through active listening after actual and possible
risks; (2) risk questioning; (3) risk identification; (4) risk monitoring; (5) risk assessment; (6) making decisions
about elicited risk and (7) risk reduction. Instruction giving using directives and recommendations is
accomplished by call-takers in four main ways: (1) acute flow maintaining instruction giving when callers are
procedurally out of line; (2) measure oriented instructions for patient care and emergency response
management; (3) organisational response instructions and (4) summarising instruction giving. Callers routinely
acknowledge risk identifications and follow instructions delivered by call-takers to examine statuses and life
signs of patients such as breathing, movement and pulse, and perform basic first aid and emergency response
measures.
The findings generated from this study will be useful in emergency call-taker training in carrying out interactive
procedures in medical emergency calls and add to the larger research programmes on on-telephone
interaction between professionals and citizen callers. This is an essential book for pre-hospital emergency care
providers and institutional interaction researchers and students.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2016
Språk
Engelska
Fulltext
Dokumenttyp
Doktorsavhandling
Förlag
Lund University
Ämne
- Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Nyckelord
- Conversation Analysis
- emergency call operator
- emotion management
- instruction giving
- medical emergency calls
- nurse
- physician
- questioning
- risk management
- Swedish
Status
Published
Handledare
- Vesa Leppänen
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISBN: 978-91-7623-691-8
- ISBN: 978-91-7623-690-1
Försvarsdatum
3 juni 2016
Försvarstid
10:00
Försvarsplats
Edens hörsal, Pardisgatan 5H, Lund
Opponent
- Jakob Cromdal (Professor)