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The medical perspective on mining incidents: Interviews with emergency medical service (EMS) personnel
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Surgery. (Arcum)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8665-9302
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing. (Arcum)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3716-6445
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing. (Arcum)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1848-060x
2019 (English)In: International Journal of Emergency Services, ISSN 2047-0894, E-ISSN 2047-0908, Vol. 8, no 3, p. 236-246Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine emergency medical service (EMS) personnel’s perceptions and experiences of managing underground mining injury incidents.

Design/methodology/approach: In total, 13 EMS personnel were interviewed according to a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Findings: An underground mining environment was described as unfamiliar and unsafe and, with no guidelines for operational actions in an extreme environment, such as underground mines, the EMS personnel were uncertain of their role. They therefore became passive and relied on the rescue service and mining company during a major incident. However, the medical care was not considered to be different from any other prehospital care, although a mining environment would make the situation more difficult and it would take longer for the mine workers to be placed under definitive care.

Originality/value: This study complements earlier studies by examining the EMS personnel’s perceptions and experiences of major incidents.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2019. Vol. 8, no 3, p. 236-246
Keywords [en]
Preparedness, Emergency medical services, Major incident, Mines
National Category
Surgery
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-165262DOI: 10.1108/IJES-02-2019-0006ISI: 000493804300002Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85073929992OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-165262DiVA, id: diva2:1370940
Available from: 2019-11-18 Created: 2019-11-18 Last updated: 2023-07-04Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Saving lives during major underground mining incidents: becoming prepared for a collaborative response
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Saving lives during major underground mining incidents: becoming prepared for a collaborative response
2020 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[sv]
Samverkan för att rädda liv : utveckling av beredskap för allvarliga skadehändelser i underjordsgruvor
Abstract [en]

Background: Major incidents in underground mines are uncommon, but they can have severe consequences. In Sweden, the municipal rescue service and the regional emergency medical service (EMS) are dispatched to mining incidents, and together with the privately owned/state owned mineral and metalliferous mining company they perform a rescue operation. The major fire incident of 2013 in a Swedish underground mine led to the realization that there was a general lack of preparedness for managing these underground emergencies.

Aim: The overall aim was to analyze the preparedness for response to major incidents in Swedish underground mines among personnel from mining companies, the rescue service, and emergency medical service.

Methods: In Study I, questionnaires (n=741) assessing Swedish underground mining company personnel’s self-assessed preparedness for emergencies were analyzed by descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple logistic regression. In Study II, individual interviews with EMS personnel (n=13) were analyzed with qualitative content analysis to identify the latent content. In Study III, six focus group interviews with personnel from mining companies (n=15), the rescue service (n=9), and EMS (n=4) were analyzed with qualitative content analysis and complemented with information from ten individual interviews with EMS personnel. In Study IV, documents (n=144) from collaboration meetings and full-scale exercises were analyzed deductively using the theory of expansive learning.

Results: Most of the Swedish underground mining company personnel considered themselves prepared to act in case of major incidents, and about two thirds of the mining company personnel considered themselves moderately confident that they know how to take care of a seriously injured peer. Their self-perceived preparedness was associated with their familiarity with rescue procedures, their risk perception, and their experience of using self-protective and first aid equipment (Study I). Study II showed that EMS personnel trusted the rescue service and mining company personnel to perform the rescue operation and considered themselves as having a supportive role. In Study III, the mining company, rescue service, and EMS personnel considered that because of the unfamiliar underground mining environment, they have to prepare their organizations for major underground incidents in collaboration with each other. In Study IV, a tentative model was created for the development of an expansive learning process for the organizations’ exercise organizers during a set of collaboration meetings and full-scale exercises.

Conclusion: The preparedness of the mining company, rescue service, and EMS personnel was analyzed through experiences from both real events and full-scale exercises. A holistic perspective of organizational preparedness for major incidents in underground mines has been generated. All organizations have their perspective of rescue operation response, but the shared objective is to save lives and care for the injured mining company personnel by performing an effective rescue operation in collaboration.

Abstract [sv]

Bakgrund: Allvarliga skadehändelser i underjordsgruvor är ovanliga, men när de inträffar kan de få allvarliga konsekvenser. I Sverige är det den kommunala räddningstjänsten och den regionala ambulanssjukvården som tillsammans med det privat eller statligt ägda gruvbolaget genomför en räddningsinsats. Den allvarliga brandincidenten 2013 i en svensk underjordsgruva ledde till insikten att den generella beredskapen för att hantera dessa underjordsskadehändelser är låg.

Syfte: Det övergripande syftet var att analysera beredskapen för att hantera allvarliga skadehändelser i svenska underjordsgruvor hos personal från gruvbolag, räddningstjänst och ambulanssjukvård.

Metoder: I Studie I undersöktes den svenska underjordsgruvpersonalens självskattade beredskap för skadehändelse med en enkät (n=741) och analyserades med deskriptiv analys, explorativ faktoranalys samt multipel logistisk regression. I Studie II genomfördes individuella intervjuer med ambulanspersonal (n=13) vilka analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att identifiera det latenta innehållet. I Studie III genomfördes sex fokusgruppsintervjuer med personal från gruvföretag (n=15), räddningstjänst (n=9) och ambulanssjukvård (n=4). Materialet analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att identifiera det manifesta innehållet och analysen kompletterades med tio individuella intervjuer med ambulanspersonal. I Studie IV analyserades dokument (n=144) från samverkansmöten och fullskaliga övningar deduktivt baserat på teorin om expansivt lärande.

Resultat: Majoriteten av den svenska underjordsgruvpersonalen ansåg sig vara förberedda för att kunna agera vid allvarliga skadehändelser och runt två tredjedelar av gruvpersonalen ansåg sig vara måttligt förtrogna med hur de skulle omhänderta en svårt skadad arbetskamrat. Gruvpersonalens självskattade beredskap var associerad med kännedom om räddningsprocedurer, riskuppfattning och erfarenhet av att använda skydds- och första hjälpenutrustning (Studie I). Studie II visade att ambulanspersonal förlitar sig på att räddningstjänstens och gruvbolagets personal genomför räddningsinsatsen och att de själva har en stödjande roll. I Studie III ansåg personal från de tre organisationerna att den obekanta miljön medför att de i samverkan behöver förbereda sina organisationer för allvarliga skadehändelser i underjordsgruvor. I Studie IV utvecklades en preliminär modell för expansivt lärande baserad på de samverkansmöten och fullskaliga övningar som organisationernas övningsledare genomförde tillsammans.

Slutsats: Beredskapen hos gruv-, räddningstjänst- och ambulanspersonal har analyserats utifrån deras erfarenheter från verkliga skadehändelser och fullskaliga övningar. En helhetsbild har skapats av organisationernas beredskap för allvarliga skadehändelser i underjordsgruvor. De tre organisationerna har skilda perspektiv vid räddningsinsats men alla har det övergripande gemensamma målet att rädda liv och omhänderta skadade genom att i samverkan utföra en effektiv räddningsinsats.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2020. p. 87
Series
Umeå University medical dissertations, ISSN 0346-6612 ; 2083
Keywords
Major incidents, preparedness, collaboration, underground mine fires, emergency medical service, rescue service, mining company, full-scale exercises, collaboration project
National Category
Surgery
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-174292 (URN)978-91-7855-258-0 (ISBN)978-91-7855-257-3 (ISBN)
Public defence
2020-09-18, N Hörsal N320, Naturvetarhuset, Umeå, 09:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Swedish National Board of Health and WelfareSwedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth
Available from: 2020-08-28 Created: 2020-08-21 Last updated: 2023-07-04Bibliographically approved

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Karlsson, SofiaSaveman, Britt-IngerGyllencreutz, Lina

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