Table 2.

Key Theme: Benefits of Prehospital Emergency Research

	Quote	Participant
Advancement of the Field of Pre-hospital Emergency Care
	I think it’s a necessity. I think you have to research in order to move forward.	Paramedic, RAA employee 4–5 years
	If the in-hospital study is the clean environment for research and the pre-hospital is the down and dirty environment for research, we can’t take that clean information and apply it down and dirty. We have to know how it works down and dirty and the way that we’re going to find that out is go out there and try it.	EMT, RAA employee 4–5 years
	So research is critical, studies are critical.	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	It [research] has to be done. It is absolutely positively necessary. That’s how progress is made.	EMT, RAA employee 2–3 years
	You gotta go in the trenches if you want to figure out the best way this is going to work.	EMT, RAA employee 2–3 years
	If this is something that is going to be a standard in the future, you’ve got to test it now and got to get the feedback on it because this might become the new standard, our new protocol.	Paramedic, RAA employee 4–5 years
	I think the research for emergency medicine as a profession has actually taken a very good turn to data research and not anecdotal research, ‘This worked for me last time on the street, let’s do it again.’	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
Improved Patient Care
	So that’s definitely your biggest benefit - saving lives and making a better outcome in the long run for the patients.	Paramedic, RAA employee 4–5 years
	The more we learn, the better we can take care of patients.	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	…This [research] will get our patients better outcomes…	Paramedic, RAA employee 2–3 years
Personal Benefits
	Every time we participate in one of these studies, we give ourselves an opportunity to broaden our own personal practitioner horizons.	EMT, RAA employee 4–5 years
	I’m all about it. Even if it means extra work…It definitely adds a lot more work…For me personally, I really like it because I get to learn a lot more since I am directly involved with every call.	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	And we get to participate in some ground-breaking stuff and I like that.	EMT, RAA employee 4–5 years
	It’s definitely nice to say you’re on the leading edge, kind of have that chip on your shoulder, makes you feel a little higher up…	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	It’s kind of part of my job…it’s just more of a part of the day to day.	Paramedic, RAA employee 4–5 years
	It doesn't fit into my career goals but it does make me feel good that at least what I am doing, or not doing, is bringing benefit to the patient.	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	If something, God forbid, ever happened and I had to go to another system, it’s gonna look good on a resume. “Hey, I was part of Richmond EMS and the place was heading up…I’ve got experience in all this.”…a system I go to, “We’re interested in thinking about cooling people down post and during cardiac arrest.” “Hey, I’ve got 5 years of experience with that.” So, I mean, it would help out, but actually make a big change? It probably wouldn’t.	EMT, RAA employee 4–5 years
Benefits Balanced with Concern: Stress, Time Requirements and Liability
	[Research is a] good idea because things are always changing, but, for me personally, because I am such a new medic, it’s very stressful.	Paramedic, RAA employee 2–3 years
	I’m still trying to figure out how we do it [participant enrollment] without messing anything up, without hurting anybody, without losing information, and without wasting time.	Paramedic, RAA employee 2–3 years
	When [the study] came out, I was like there is a possibility that we could directly, immediately harm somebody with it and I had some concerns about liability. If I give them [the treatment medications] in the wrong order or something like that, if the patient dies, am I held accountable?	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	I’m kind of a trusting person so I trust that [the university] and [EMS agency] have everything in place to protect us… It was a short-lived worry, but it was a worry.	Paramedic, RAA employee 6 or more years
	I have a genuine concern [for] liability…I want to make sure our liability is limited. I want to be able to say, ‘We stuck our neck out,’ for lack of a better term, ‘and did something that nobody else is doing.’ We are good at that here. However, that risk can sometimes be greater than the possible benefit. That would be a definite concern – liability.	EMT, RAA employee 6 or more years, administrative role