Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma

Assessment of awareness and attitude of EMS personnel concerning pre-hospital stroke care based on American Stroke Association Guideline

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Payman Asadi 1
Vahid Monsef Kasmaei 1
Seyyed Mahdi Zia Ziabari 1
Shiva Bakian 1
Amir Noyani 2

1 Guilan Road Trauma Research Center, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Guilan, Iran

2 Clinical Research Development Unit, Imam Hossein Hospital, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran

https://doi.org/10.34172/jept.2020.05
Abstract
Objective: Emergency medical services (EMS) is a critical component of health care system and the forefront of stroke care. The prominent role of EMS in stroke care is timely and accurate diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke and transfer of the patients to stroke centers. The present study aimed to assess the “awareness” and “attitude” of EMS personnel concerning prehospital stroke care based on American Stroke Association (ASA) guideline in Rasht town.
Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study. The participants, consisted of all EMS personnel (n = 115) in Rasht town in 2012, entered the study based on census method. Awareness and attitude of EMS personnel toward prehospital stroke care were assessed using a questionnaire based on ASA guideline. The questionnaire had two sections. The first part contained demographic data and the second part had multiple choice items (Likert-type scale response anchors) to assess awareness and attitude of the personnel. The questionnaires were filled out by the personnel. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS software version 20. P-value less than 5% was considered significant.
Results: Ninety people participated in this study. The average of age and working experience of participants were 36.84 ± 8.02 and 11.36 ± 5.71, respectively. Most of the participants had bachelor degree (n = 33, 36.7%) and majored in medical emergency (n = 43, 47.8%). Most of them were contract employees (47.8%). Mean scores of awareness and attitude of the personnel were 26.68 (the total number of score = 51) and 32.56 (the total number of score = 80), respectively.
Conclusion: Findings revealed poor awareness and attitude of EMS personnel toward prehospital stroke care based on ASA guideline in

Keywords

Awareness
Attitude
Stroke
Prehospital care
Subjects
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Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma
Volume 6, Issue 2
July 2020
Pages 68-72

  • Receive Date 12 February 2020
  • Revise Date 20 March 2020
  • Accept Date 25 March 2020

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