Using Security Guards and Civil Volunteers as First Responders in Medical Emergency Response - Tasks, Needs, and Challenges

Abstract

Introduction:

Public sector challenges have initiated new forms of collaboration between emergency response organizations, occupations from other societal sectors, and civil citizens, not the least in socio-economically vulnerable areas. As collaborations emerge, there is a need to explore the tasks, needs, and challenges of the new resources when providing medical emergency response.

Aim:

To explore two cases of 1) security guards and 2) organized civil volunteers collaborating with the ambulance services and municipal rescue services, and identifying relevant tasks, needs and challenges. The presentation will focus on their dispatch on medical alerts. A brief comparison of the two groups will also be performed.

Methods:

A case study approach was applied involving interviews and workshops with security guards, civil volunteers, ambulance services, and rescue services personnel.

Results:

The civil volunteers are dispatched on medical alerts concerning heart failures and accidents requiring first aid, including stopping major bleedings. The scope of tasks of security guards is broader since they are also dispatched on suicide and assault alerts. Needs in both cases include, e.g., proper training, joint exercises, equipment in terms of defibrillators, torquedos, and first aid kits, and proper ICT/GPS positioning support for dispatching. Challenges are mainly organizational and legal where security guards are somewhat protected by their own employer (e.g., through agreements, trauma support, and safety measures such as receiving a hepatitis vaccine) while civil volunteers do not have sufficient protection in any of these respects.

Discussion:

Both groups are useful resources in future medical emergency response since they are often close to the incident site and can provide first response while waiting for the professional resources, thereby saving lives and reducing consequences of trauma. However, they need to be better integrated into the professional emergency response system.