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Cardiac arrest

Community first responders trained but rarely dispatched

Characteristics and experiences of community first responders in suspected out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A survey of early adopters prior to local system implementation
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-11 · Added 8 November 2026

A cross-sectional survey of 2,704 registered community first responders in two Swedish regions before local system launch found most were CPR-trained and felt prepared (97.3%) but real dispatch experience was low (15.1% ever dispatched, 1.9% performed CPR).

Study type

Cross-sectional

Design

Multicentre cross-sectional survey (two regions, pre-implementation)

Participants

2,704 respondents of 14,141 registered first responders (19.1%)

Main finding

84.3% had CPR training within two years and 97.3% felt prepared (both associated with healthcare/emergency background and recent training, p<0.001), yet only 15.1% had ever been dispatched, 2.8% arrived before EMS and 1.9% performed CPR

Caveat

Self-reported readiness in volunteers with almost no real-world dispatch experience; 19.1% response rate

Bottom line

Hypothesis-generating

Learning goal

Understand how volunteer readiness and dispatch integration shape community responder impact in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

More

• Topic: Cardiac arrest
• Daily scan: 8 November 2026
• Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 8 November 2026

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