Date
8-9-2024
Department
School of Health Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Chair
Marybeth Mitcham
Keywords
EMS, emergency medical services, medical director, paramedic, feedback, outcome, resilience, prehospital, moral injury
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Stephen E., "Feedback in Emergency Medical Services: A Missing Cornerstone" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5835.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5835
Abstract
The purpose of this mixed methods constructivist grounded theory (CGT) study is to explore how paramedics and medical directors (MD)s in the United States perceive outcomes feedback regarding its type, quality, and quantity. This type of feedback, which can influence their critical thinking skills, knowledge base, and job satisfaction, is crucial to their professional development. In this study, patient outcomes feedback refers to general patient information, including emergency department assessment, treatment, diagnosis, admission or discharge decisions, and the overall outcome of the patient's hospital experience. The conceptual framework, focusing on the perspectives of paramedics and medical directors, is based on Creswell and Poth's mixed methods research. This framework shaped the study, survey, and interview questions about MDs' and paramedics' experiences with feedback on outcomes, influencing factors, and the feedback processes' effects on participants. This study addresses the lack of research on feedback on patient outcomes for paramedics, offering an emerging perspective and potential to enhance paramedics' critical thinking skills. MDs and paramedics were purposively recruited for interviews using snowball and convenience survey sampling. Data collection involved interviews, memoing, and theoretical reflexivity, which informed the coding processes. The data were analyzed through initial coding, category development, and theoretical coding and then merged with quantitative and qualitative survey data to inform the CGT on outcomes feedback. The convergence of these processes resulted in a finalized theory that links the knowledge gap from a constructivist perspective to EMS feedback, enhancing clinical decision-making and resilience.
