Rural and Urban EMS Level of Comfort with Overdose Treatment

Purpose: This study aims to determine aptitude levels of rural and urban EMS providers treating drug overdoses in the field. Methods: This is both a qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional survey including 90 respondents from urban and rural demographics. Findings: This study found no evidence (p = 0.126) that the likelihood of being extremely comfortable with administering Naloxone differed between urban and rural EMS workers when accounting for certification level, years of experience and amount of training. We also found no evidence (p = 0.859) of a difference between rural and urban EMS workers administering secondary doses of naloxone. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that although rural EMS providers have an increased transit time to get an overdose patient to the hospital and were less likely to have an advanced provider available to them at the response scene, rural providers feel similarly comfortable with treating an opioid overdose with naloxone as their urban counterparts when certification level, years of experience and number of hours of training are considered.