Pre-hospital care providers’ perspective and associated factors towards pre-hospital emergency care in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022

Background: The pre-hospital emergency care is a system that provides emergency care to critically ill and injured patients in the field. Pre-hospital emergency care aims to deliver care on time to sufferers of sudden, life-threatening injuries and avoid unnecessary death or long-term morbidity. Accidental trauma, cardiac arrest, stroke, and obstetric emergencies are common causes of premature mortality and disability in low and middle-income countries. In these countries, most early deaths are the result of inadequate pre-hospital care provision.The objective of this study was to assess pre-hospital care providers' perspectives and associated factors toward pre-hospital emergency medical care. Result: In this study, the majority of participants' work experience was from 6-10years 40.6%(71), and 20%(35) above 10-years of work experience. The majority of care providers in the prehospital institution were 79.4% (139) nurses and 8.6% (15) emergency and critical nurses. The finding of this study showed that 96 (54.9%) of study participants had a good perspective and 45.1%(79) of the study participants had a poor perspective toward the pre-hospital emergency care. More than half of the participants of the study 52%(91) agreed that there is no proper documentation in prehospital care provider institutions. This study also indicated that there were no adequate basic life support equipment and drugs to provide emergency care in an ambulance. Eighty-seven (49.7%) of study participants replied that there were no the pre-hospital care guidelines and protocols that help care providers to give appropriate care in the ambulance service Conclusion: The finding of this study showed that more than half of the study participants had a good perspective on the hospital emergency care. Pre-hospital care providers who had master's educational status were 1.17 times more likely to have a good perspective towards pre-hospital emergency care as compared to pre-hospital care providers who had diploma educational status. Therefore, the ministry of health of Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa health bureau, and all other stakeholders have to increase the training level of pre-hospital care providers to increase the quality care of prehospital service.