When community-dwelling older adults come to hospital emergency rooms, some arrive by ambulance. The experience of transport by ambulance may be a significant and stressful event for a frail older adult who is ill or injured. The stress of the transport may intensify symptoms or induce new symptoms. Many nurses lack personal experience of transport by ambulance as a patient that would help them understand the experience of being a patient in an ambulance and how that experience may influence presenting symptoms. A search of the literature did not identify any reports describing the experiences of older adults during transport by ambulance from community settings to emergency rooms. In this project, 15 older adults (community-dwelling citizens of Alabama 70 years of age or older who were able to recall the experience of transport by ambulance) were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analysis of the transcripts included reading and re-reading by the three members of the research team and identification of thematic material describing the experience with discussion among the team members of possible meanings of the thematic material. Participants’ accounts of the ambulance rides spoke of the roughness and length of the rides to the hospital, the uncertainty of the outcome of the illness episodes, and fear of death or disability. Participants spoke of the pain they endured but also of the competence and compassion of the ambulance crews. It is anticipated that the findings of this project will be of interest to emergency room nurses and physicians and will help them interpret the symptoms of older adults arriving at the emergency room by ambulance.
Session #1219 - Poster Session I
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)