Individuals who experience a traumatic injury or an acute illness are often reliant on initial healthcare assessment and support from a pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS). These community-based support models perform a vital role in the provision of life-saving support, but research indicates that the availability, accessibility and resources of EMS are not equivalent in rural and urban areas, and there has been little recognition of the issues facing rural EMS provision outside of the USA, Europe and Australia. The purpose of the current study was to examine the lived experiences of Saudi Arabian EMS personnel, defined as emergency medical technicians, paramedics and local station managers. A semi-structured interview approach was used to collect data from 20 interviewees (10 each with rural and urban personnel) in the Riyadh region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This methodology was used to identify the key issues that these staff face in their day-to-day work practice and ascertain factors that may lead to service delivery issues in rural and urban areas. Data analyses identified three thematic categories impacting EMS delivery; two of these, Personnel Factors and Patient Factors, are the focus of this paper. The participants noted a number of key issues, including a lack of appropriate local training and limited resources in rural areas, as well as general areas of concern regarding the wider EMS staff demographic makeup and poor public awareness about the exact role of the EMS. Three key recommendations arising from this study include specialised training and ongoing accessible education for rural EMS staff to allow for better support for patients; consideration of supplementing the current EMS with additional external specialist staff; and the development and implementation of national public education programmes focusing on the role of the EMS within the community.

中文翻译：

---

沙特阿拉伯农村和城市的紧急医疗服务：一项关于红新月会急救人员对影响有效分娩的劳动力和患者因素看法的定性研究

遭受外伤或急性疾病的个人通常依赖于初步的医疗保健评估和院前急救医疗服务 (EMS) 的支持。这些以社区为基础的支持模式在提供救生支持方面发挥着至关重要的作用，但研究表明，EMS 的可用性、可及性和资源在农村和城市地区并不相同，人们很少认识到面临的问题美国、欧洲和澳大利亚以外的农村 EMS 服务。当前研究的目的是检查沙特阿拉伯 EMS 人员的生活经历，这些人员被定义为紧急医疗技术人员、护理人员和当地车站经理。使用半结构化访谈方法从沙特阿拉伯王国利雅得地区的 20 名受访者（农村和城市人员各 10 名）收集数据。该方法用于确定这些员工在日常工作实践中面临的关键问题，并确定可能导致农村和城市地区服务交付问题的因素。数据分析确定了三个影响 EMS 交付的主题类别；其中两个，人事因素和患者因素，是本文的重点。与会者指出了一些关键问题，包括缺乏适当的当地培训和农村地区资源有限，以及对更广泛的 EMS 员工人口构成和公众对 EMS 确切作用的认识不足的普遍关注领域。这项研究提出的三项主要建议包括对农村 EMS 工作人员进行专业培训和持续的无障碍教育，以便更好地支持患者；考虑用额外的外部专家人员补充当前的 EMS；制定和实施以 EMS 在社区中的作用为重点的国家公共教育计划。