Hijacking the dispatch protocol: When callers pre-empt their reason-for-the-call in emergency calls about cardiac arrest

Abstract

This article examines emergency ambulance calls made by lay callers for patients found to be in cardiac arrest when the paramedics arrived. Using conversation analysis, we explored the trajectories of calls in which the caller, before being asked by the call-taker, said why they were calling, that is, calls in which callers pre-empted a reason-for-the-call. Caller pre-emption can be disruptive when call-takers first need to obtain an address and telephone number. Pre-emptions have further implications when call-takers reach the stage when they are required to deliver the scripted turn ‘ tell me exactly what happened’. When there has been a pre-emption earlier on, callers tend to treat the scripted turn as a request for more information and may not repeat their reason-for-the-call. This can occasion delays and important information can be lost. We identified an effective alternative strategy used by some call-takers, pre-emption repeat, which callers treat as a request for confirmation.

‘We’re going to do CPR’: A linguistic study of the words used to initiate dispatcher-assisted CPR and their association with caller agreement

“…This includes the details of how dispatchers talk about CPR. This study expands on our recent efforts [22,23,33,34] to provide a deeper understanding of the interactional dynamics between caller and dispatcher during OHCA calls. However, in the context of DA-CPR, a caveat of this study is that we solely focused on caller agreement to perform CPR and the provision of DA-CPR at any point during the calls.…”

A survey on technologies used during Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

“…Researchers have been proposing solutions to problems experienced by both bystanders and dispatchers during an OHCA 32,33,34,35,36,37 . However, an integrated view of the OHCA workflow is required to recognize problems encountered during an OHCA and identify potential solutions.…”

A declaração de morte, um revelador de dificuldades interacionais no serviço telefônico de emergência

“…A observação do nosso corpus mostra que alguns TARMs estão plenamente conscientes dessa discrepância entre chamador ideal e real e das dificuldades de comunicação que se seguem, conforme ilustrado pelos exemplos 16 e 17. poderia dar bons resultados -como sugerem Riou et al (2018), após análise de chamadas de emergência motivadas por parada cardíaca.…”

“…As chamadas desalinhadas do nosso corpus, muito mais frequentes nessas situações extremas, são interessantes porque permitem observar concretamente a relação envolvendo o drama pessoal, a emoção que ele gera e o procedimento padronizado de seu tratamento institucional. Em um plano mais prático, estudos recentes consideram uma possível contribuição da análise interacional para a melhoria dos serviços telefônicos de emergência (CLEGG et al, 2014;RIOU et al, 2017;RIOU et al, 2018). As trocas verbais são, ao mesmo tempo, o material do trabalho para o qual o atendente-aprendiz se prepara e elas produzem um incessante vaivém entre antecipação e retroação, que consideramos importante explicitar.…”