Acute manic and/or psychotic symptoms could lead to a psychiatric crisis. Emergency care is provided by outpatient Crisis Resolution Teams. If ambulatory care is impossible or insufficient, most of the time (forced) hospitalization is required. The role of ambulance services is to transport patients with acute psychiatric symptoms to a psychiatric hospital. Although ambulance nurses have an important contribution in caring for patients in crisis, little is known about their experiences regarding psychiatric emergency care.
Doel: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of Dutch ambulance nurses in emergency care for patients with acute manic and/or psychotic symptoms and their family.
Hoofdvraag: What are the experiences of ambulance nurses in emergency care for patients with acute manic and/or psychotic symptoms and their family?
An explorative qualitative generic approach will be used. The population consists of ambulance nurses in the Netherlands. Participants will be recruited from four regional ambulance services in the east of the Netherlands.
Inclusion criteria: Ambulance nurses had to be cooperated with patients with acute manic and/or psychotic symptoms and their family for minimal five times at the last three years. This minimum is established to ensure that ambulance nurses have gained multiple experiences with emergency care for these patients.
Methode: Unstructured, non-standardised interviews will be used for data-collection. Each interview will start with a general question; “What are your most memorable experiences in the care for patients with acute manic and/or psychotic symptoms?” Relevant topics are contained in an aide-memoire. The aide-memoire is useful, since it follows the thoughts of participants while remaining within the overall aim of the study.
Sample size: According to the literature,16 to 24 interviews are needed to reach meaning saturation.