Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore and describe the ways specialist ambulance nursing (SAN) students understand the work in the ambulance service. DESIGN, SAMPLE, AND MEASUREMENTS: An explorative descriptive design was carried out through individual interviews with 16 SAN students from all parts of Sweden and analysed in accordance with the phenomenographic tradition. FINDINGS: Five different ways of understanding the work were described and each was assigned a metaphor; The medical role; The practical role; The patient-oriented role; The commanding role; and The comprehensive role. Several aspects concerning personal, organizational, and situational conditions affecting the understanding and the distribution of these roles in the specific care assignment were identified and presented in a hierarchical model of the outcome space. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes with a new perspective on supporting role clarity for registered nurses (RN) working in the ambulance service (AS). Specialization and experiential learning are needed to support an understanding of all aspects of the work in order to develop a professional competence aligned with the challenges faced in the AS. The development of expertise in the AS needs a contextualized understanding rooted in a theoretical framework that addresses a holistic perspective towards patients' needs.