Physicians' experiences of providing emergency care to undocumented migrants arriving in Spain by small boats

Abstract

Introduction: Access to emergency care for undocumented migrants (UMs) is a public health problem. Spain receives thousands of UMs who arrive by sea. A multidisciplinary team of the Spanish Red Cross, made up of physicians, nurses, police, and cultural mediators, developed emergency care for UMs.

Aim: The aim of our study is to describe and understand the experiences of physicians in emergency care for UMs who arrive in Spain by small boats METHODS: Qualitative study, based on Gadamer's phenomenology. Convenience and purposive sampling was carried out and included sixteen in-depth interviews with physicians, between June 2019 and March 2020 in Spain.

Results: Three main themes emerged: 1) Rediscovering humanistic medicine; 2) Leaving the personal and professional comfort zone; 3) Improving medical emergency care.

Conclusions: Triage, pharmacological prescription, and the closure of the emergency care process are the key contributions of medical care. Cultural, language and security barriers make emergency care difficult.

Keywords: Emergency care; Phenomenology; Physicians; Qualitative research; Spain; Undocumented migrants.