When an accident has occurred, first aid before a professional response arrives can improve the outcome for the victims. However, little research has been done on the effect of coordination and leadership on first aid responses. This work-in-progress study reports an experiment using a simulated scenario, i.e. traffic accident, to understand the effect of coordination and leadership on first aid performance in ad-hoc groups of immediate responders. The results showed that coordination and leadership are significantly related to increased self-evaluated team performance while expertise and authority differentiation is not. These results provide a first insight to the coordination and leadership in ad-hoc groups of immediate responders, but more research is needed to validate these results. Structured performance evaluation with subject matter experts is planned as an extension to the present work-in-progress.

This paper presents an ethnographic study consisting of non-participatory observations of a Swedish regional medical command and control team during their crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The field-notes from the observations were analyzed using a deductive content analysis with categories representing teamwork processes. The content analysis showed that the studied regional medical command and control team was engaged in all but one of the predefined teamwork processes. Furthermore, the content analysis also added to the understanding of the regional medical command and control teamÂ’s work procedures by emphasizing how the team was engaged in the different processes. Lastly, the content analysis also made it possible to identify potential developmental needs of the studied regional medical command and control team.

Introduction

Hemorrhage control initiated by laypeople, or immediate responders, can be a crucial link for increased survival among victims with hemorrhage. An increased interest in hemorrhage control training for laypeople have resulted in numerous publications in the area, showing that training laypeople in hemorrhage control can be successful (Nichols & Horstman, 2022; Tang et al., 2022). To this date, it is unknown which training factors are associated with successful training outcomes and to what extent. The objective of this study is to review and analyze past and present literature on hemorrhage control training for laypeople, in order to highlight current knowledge gaps, and direct future research.

Method

A systematic literature review was performed by reviewing and analyzing the literature. Five electronic databases, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, were used in the literature search. Search keywords were chosen among the variations and synonyms to the words: “laypeople” AND “hemorrhage” AND “training” AND “stop the bleed”. To examine where the knowledge gaps exist in terms of training effectiveness, a theoretical model by Cannon-Bowers et al. (1995) was chosen as theoretical lens, and each record was categorized into six training outcome categories: reactions, attitude change, learning, training performance, job performance, and results/organizational effectiveness, according to the content of the reviewed studies.

Preliminary results

In total, 2962 records were initially identified for screening, and 1186 records were kept after duplicate removal and deletion of incomplete records. After title and abstract review, 186 records were sought for retrieval. This will be further reduced into a fewer number of records for full text review after additional screening. By categorizing the records into the six training outcome categories, previous research efforts can be highlighted, as well as it creates an opportunity for future research suggestions.

Conclusion

By equipping the public with the necessary knowledge and tools for hemorrhage control, lives can be saved. By examining the literature on hemorrhage control training effectiveness, suggestions for future research and educational practice can be made.

There are currently several educational initiatives to teach first aid courses for medical laypeople, such as the Stop the Bleed campaign. Although much research on educational initiatives has been conducted, there are still factors that remain unexplored, such as the potential effects of blood itself on laypeople’s first aid performance and educational experience. This study investigates such potential effects for performance of the first aid techniques tourniquet application and wound packing, in relation to individual differences in disgust sensitivity and medical fear of blood. The results show that the presence of blood will increase the time a medical layperson takes to apply a tourniquet and pack a wound but does not affect the quality of the aid. Additionally, the disgust sensitivity of the medical layperson was found to predict an increase in application time for the wound packing task, but not the tourniquet application task, when blood was present.