First Aid and Transportation in Combat Pre-Hospital Care: Concept Analysis with Walker and Avant Approach

Background and Aim: Pre-hospital care is a multidimensional concept with multiple definitions, but the first aid and transportation concept remains unclear. The aim of this study was to clarify the first aid and transportation concept in pre-hospital combat medical care. Methods: The Walker-Avant approach was used for the analysis of the concept of first aid and transportation. This approach is one of the methods of conceptualization and concept development that ultimately leads to the development of the theory. Databases of PubMed, Web of Sciences, Ovid, Iran Medex, Magiran, SID were searched using keywords of "First aid and transportation", and "pre-hospital care". Totally 728 articles were found to be published between 2010-2020 in Persian or English. eighty-eight articles were found to be suitable after initial screening. Irrelevance or without full text articles, were excluded. Finally, 9 articles were analyzed based on Walker and Event analysis steps, and the definition, applications, features, premise, implications and experimental referrals were extracted for the concept of first aid and transportation in pre-hospital care. Results: Concept analysis showed that the concept of first aid and transportation is synonym with concepts such as helping, immediate care, and life preservation. This concept has a complex process characterized by the concepts of rapid response, life-saving, commitment, expertise, responsibility, and is in contrast with the terms of irresponsibility and time-consuming. This concept is related to the concepts of border rescue, pre-hospital care, self-aid and buddy-aid in combat medicine. Conclusion: Identifying and analyzing the first aid and transportation concept is a most used strategy for increasing the knowledge to make changes in combat medicine and crisis management. It is completely context-based and is influenced by climatic conditions, culture, literacy level, public education, public health, communications and guidelines. It is also related to the provision of pre-hospital care services provided by medical staff, especially nurses in terms of quantity and quality. Skillful resuscitation leads to more life-saving. Responsibility and commitment give credit to first aid and transportation.