Patients and acute coronary syndrome - Prehospital delay and mental and emotional delaying
responses - a qualitative study
Engelsk titel: Patients and acute coronary syndrome - Prehospital delay and mental and emotional delaying
responses - a qualitative study
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Författare:
Hedegaard Larsen, Birte
;
Lorentzen, Vibeke
Email: birtelar@rm.dk
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 0
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 16063884
Sammanfattning
In the pre-hospital phase, patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome symptoms delay making
contact to medical services. Initiatives taken to improve knowledge and reduce pre-hospital delay
have proven unsuccessful, and a need to focus on subjective factors was emphasised. The aims of
this study were to identify and discuss patient’s mental and emotional responses, including
interpretations and delaying strategies concerning Acute Coronary Syndrome symptoms, with a view
to elucidating patterns in the pre-hospital decision-making process of female and male persons to
contact medical services. A phenomenological design inspired by Steinar Kvale provided the
methodological foundation. 15 women and 15 men with a first-time diagnosis of Acute Coronary
Syndrome were interviewed 48-72 hours after admission. On symptom debut, the participants’
strategies were to «wait and see» and «let me be». Chest pains were cardinal. Male participants often
used expletives and expressed symptoms in concrete terms. Women expressed symptoms in
vaguer terms. Both genders used linguistic metaphors. The implications for nursing emphasised the
impact of prodromal symptoms, mental and emotional withdrawal, and linguistic presentation of chest
pains to understand and reduce pre-hospital delay.