Conceptions and Feelings of Nurses Working in Emergency Medical Services about their Professional Practice and Training

This descriptive study with qualitative approach aimed to identify the feelings that result from the practice and training of nurses working in mobile Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Nine nurses were interviewed in September 2007. Bardin's content analysis was used and six categories emerged: "Feelings aroused in the EMS", "Experiences in the daily routine", "nurses' activities in EMS", "Personal and professional preparedness", "Reflecting on the professional training" and "Nurses' perceptions of the EMS". The importance of this study lays in the need for personally, professionally and emotionally prepared nurses and also in the need to acknowledge and value the nursing practice in this service. The results revealed that nurses working in EMS feel secure, prepared and motivated to work and they also experience diverse feelings such as compassion, gratitude, anger, pity, sadness and anxiety. Acknowledgment and the possibility of restoring lives motivate them.