Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Australasian Emergency Care

Volume

25

Issue

4

First Page

327

Last Page

333

PubMed ID

35525724

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Arts and Humanities / School of Science / School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

44339

Funders

West Australian Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (Grant ID G1005220)

Comments

This is an Authors Accepted Manuscript version of an article published by Elsevier in Australasian Emergency Care.

Mills, B. W., Hill, M. G., Miles, A. K., Smith, E. C., Afrifa-Yamoah, E., Reid, D. N., ... & Sim, M. G. (2022). Ability of the Australian general public to identify common emergency medical situations: Results of an online survey of a nationally representative sample. Australasian Emergency Care, 25(4), 327-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2022.04.002

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the Australian general public's ability to identify common medical emergencies as requiring an emergency response. Methods: An online survey asked participants to identify likely medical treatment pathways they would take for 17 hypothetical medical scenarios (eight emergency and nine non-emergency). The number and type of emergency scenarios participants correctly suggested warranted an emergency medical response was examined. Participants included Australian residents (aged > 18 years; n = 5264) who had never worked as an Australian registered medical doctor, nurse or paramedic. Results: Most emergencies were predominately correctly classified as requiring emergency responses (e.g. Severe chest pain, 95 % correct). However, non-emergency medical responses were often chosen for some emergency scenarios, such as a child suffering from a scalp haematoma (67 %), potential meningococcal disease (57 %), a box jellyfish sting (40 %), a paracetamol overdose (37 %), and mild chest pain (26 %). Participants identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander suggested a non-emergency response to emergency scenarios 29 % more often compared with non-indigenous participants. Conclusions: Educational interventions targeting specific medical symptoms may work to alleviate delayed emergency medical intervention. This research highlights a particular need for improving symptom identification and healthcare system confidence amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

DOI

10.1016/j.auec.2022.04.002

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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