背景: 道路交通事故及傷害在史瓦濟蘭及非洲許多國家皆為健康、經濟及發展等方面的主要挑戰,其中具有生命危險且必須緊急接受治療的時效性傷害造成的負擔最為嚴重。因此改善到院前救護可幫助降低道交通事故導致的死亡率及致死率。 目的: 探討現今緊急醫療救護運作之情形,並提出發展及加強國家緊急醫療救護系統之證據。 研究方法: 研究方法為探討及描述性的質性研究。資料收集是與14位到院前救護之專業人員進行深入訪談。資料分析採用內容推論分析。 結果: 結果顯示史瓦濟蘭的緊急醫療救護系統在許多方面皆須加強,包含醫療人員之訓練、資源的分配及利用、聯絡及運送、組織管理及緊急醫療救護人員與設施間的相互影響。 結論: 在鄉村地區緊急醫療救護服務的分佈仍是分散且不便。複雜的管理系統及人力是緊急醫療照護並未被做為優先考量的公共衛生議題的原因。因此若能增加救護車中基本必須之設備會比配置高級設備來的效益更高。
Background: Road traffic crashes and injuries constitute a major health, economic and developmental challenge for many African countries including Swaziland. A significant burden of road traffic crashes is caused by time-sensitive injuries that call for the need for timely treatment during life-threatening emergencies. Improvements in pre-hospital trauma care can help minimize mortality and morbidity from road traffic injuries. Objective: To explore the operations of the EMS and the evidence indicating the need to develop and/or strengthen the emergency medical care system in the country. Method: An exploratory, descriptive qualitative study design was used. The data was collected using in-depth interviews with fourteen pre-hospital care professionals. The data was analyzed using the deductive content analysis. Results: The findings revealed that the EMS system in Swaziland needed strengthening in various aspects, which included training of health providers; availability and distribution of resources, communication and transport, administration and organization, interaction with emergency care actors and infrastructure. Conclusion: Distribution of emergency medical services remained fragmented and inaccessible to the majority of the population especially those in the rural areas. Emergency care was not given priority as a major public health concern; management systems were excessively complicated and staff in. The system could benefit if more ambulances equipped with only the basic necessities could be added instead of the highly equipped ambulances.