• Sverre Rørtveit and Eivind Meland.
• Kommunelegekontoret, 5399 Bekkjarvik. sverre.rortveit@austevoll.kommune.no
• Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen. 2004 Feb 5; 124 (3): 320-1.

AbstractPatients suspected of having an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) constitute a group with particularly high risk of developing cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation (VF). It is conceivable that a strategy of shortening the interval until defibrillation skills are brought to the patient can be more fruitful in rural areas than the now prevailing recommendations of obtaining rapid defibrillation after cardiac arrest is manifest. A project is being organized in a Norwegian rural municipality, where laymen are being trained in the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and are organized in groups according to place of residence or work. Their main task is to bring the AED to patients with suspected AMI and be prepared to use the AED if cardiac arrest should supervene. The main objective of a planned five-year study is to gather information as to what degree of mastering and what degree of stress the participants of the project experience, and to see if it is possible to maintain an organisation like this over a longer period of time. Preliminary results from the first half-year of the project indicate that the participants are entering the project with a reasonable degree of individual self-confidence and have even greater confidence in the group to which they belong. This might suggest that it is an advantage for participants in AED projects to be organised in groups in which mutual support is experienced.

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