ABSTRACT A thesis was submitted to the committee of Graduate School of Kongju National University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Emergency Medical Service conferred in February, 2020




A Study on Current Status of Prehospital Emergency Care for Pregnant Women, Knowledge related to Pregnant Women, and Self-Confidence in Emergency Care among 119 Paramedics


Jong-Min Park


Department of Emergency Medical Service
Graduate School of Kongju National University
Gong ju, Korea


(Supervised by Professor Keun-Ja, Cho)




Objective : This study was attempted to identify the current status of the occurrence of pregnant patients transported by 119 paramedics, identify the knowledge of pregnant women and self-confidence in emergency care among 119 paramedics, and provide the basic data for improving the quality of emergency care provided for pregnant patients.

Methods : This study analyzed the emergency diaries from 1,798 pregnant women and the questionnaires from 164 paramedics (Class 1, nurses) transported from City I from Jan. 1, 2016 till Dec. 31, 2018. The questionnaire consisted of 34 question items about knowledge of pregnant women and 22 about self-confidence in emergency care: 82 in total. The collected data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25.0 for frequency analysis, independent t-test, oneway-ANOVA, and Pearson coefficient correlation.

Results : Our findings are as follows,
1) Among 1,798 pregnant patients in total, 85.5%(1,537 cases) had disease/pregnancy symptoms and 2.5%(45 cases) had field delivery, among which omphalotomy by 119 paramedics was 1.6%(28 cases).

2) The frequency of patient assessment was over 97% in respiration rate, pulsation, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and blood pressure. The rate of medical guidance request was 4.2%(76 cases). In obstructive factor, ‘none’ was most at 88.8%(1,640 cases), followed by traffic jam 4.2%(78 cases) and long-distance transfer 4.0%(73 cases).

3) Among the 119 paramedics who responded to the survey, those who replied that they had transported a pregnant woman were 89.0%(146 individuals) and those who replied that they had assisted with the delivery 29.5%(43 individuals).

4) Those who replied ‘No’ to the question, “Were you trained about pregnant patients?” were 56.1%(92 individuals). In educational institution, 69.4%(50 individuals) replied that they were trained by the fire station and fire defense headquarters. In training time, 48.6%(35 individuals) replied 1 ≤ time < 2 hours. In satisfaction with training time, 51.4%(37 individuals) replied that they had not enough time. In training method, 62.5%(45 individuals) replied that they were trained about theory+practice education. 58.3%(42 individuals) replied that training was helpful for their job performance, 61.6%(101individuals) replied that training about pregnant patients was very necessary, and 88.4%(145 individuals) replied that they found transportation of pregnant patients difficult.

5) As difficulties in transporting pregnant patients, lack of experience replied by 86.1%(124 individuals), lack of knowledge of pregnant women by 70.8%(102 individuals), and lack of treatment ability by 52.1%(75 individuals).

6) Entire knowledge of pregnant women was 34 points in total, and the mean was 23.73(±2.98) points. The knowledge of pregnant women depending on general characteristics showed a statistically significant difference in gender(p=.000), age (p=.015), academic background (p=.037), type of qualification (p=.000), and clinical career at medical institution (p=.000).

7) The grand mean of self-confidence in emergency treatment for pregnant women was 3.19(±0.74) points, and in mean by subject area, evaluation and emergency treatment for pregnant women was 3.16(±0.68) and delivery, newborn baby evaluation and emergency treatment 3.21(±0.87). The self-confidence in performance depending on general characteristics showed a statistically significant difference in pregnancy/childbirth (indirect) experience (p=.004), age (p=.001), position (p=.003), working years as 119 paramedics (p=.001), clinical career at the medical institution (p=.021), and frequency of assisted delivery (p=.007).


8) Depending on presence of training, knowledge of pregnant women showed a significant difference in the emergency treatment area specialized for pregnant women (p=.018), and self-confidence in emergency treatment for pregnant women showed a significant difference in both evaluation and emergency treatment area for pregnant women (p=.016) and delivery, newborn baby evaluation and emergency treatment area (p=.000).

9) Knowledge of pregnant women had a statistically significant positive correlation with self-confidence in emergency treatment for pregnant women (r=.306, p=.000).

Conclusion : For better emergency treatment for pregnant patients before hospitalization, various training programs for pregnant patients with theory and practice combined need to be expanded and more opportunities should be provided with 119 paramedics.

Key words : pregnant women, prehospital emergency care, knowledge, self-confidence, 119 paramedics