Caller’s Emotional Content and Cooperation for Emergency Medical Dispatcher

Introduction:

When a caller is emotional, agitated, afraid, or excited, it is necessary to calm down the caller by EMD (EmergencyMedical Dispatcher) so the caller can hear the EMD’s questions & instructions (PDI’s & PAI’s) given and respond to them appropriately in a critical Situation.

The emotional content and cooperation of the caller is Influenced by:

1. The caller’s situation regulates
2. The manner of questioning or behavior of the EMD.
3. How the questions or instructions are delivered by the EMD.

The Gaging Parameters:

To measure the Emotional Content and Cooperation of caller the NAED ( National Academies of Emergency Dispatch ) uses a tool called ESSC ( Emotional Content and Cooperation Score ). It is a scale based on caller’s tone of voice and level of corporation which enable to review the rate of caller’s emotion and cooperation level.

The scale used to assess the caller’s emotional content and cooperation is:

Emotion/Cooperation	Score
Normal, conversational	1
Anxious but cooperative	2
Moderately upset but cooperative	3
Uncooperative, not listening, yelling	4
Uncontrollable, hysterical	5

Further elaborated as:

ECCS 1

The caller uses a normal, conversational tone and volume.

ECCS 2

The caller is anxious and demonstrating concern, but is cooperative.

ECCS 3

The caller’s tone is bordering on distress and becoming more demanding.

The volume is increasing, but the caller is still responsive to questioning. The caller may need to be asked the same question more than once because of her/his distracted behavior.

ECCS 4

The caller is yelling loudly, is not listening to the questions, and fails to understand why help is not being sent or what the delay is. The caller is uncooperative.

ECCS 5

The caller is doing the only thing s/he is immediately able to do, and that is calling for help. The caller’s distress is such that s/he does not comprehend what the EMD is saying. The caller only knows s/he needs help. The caller is only able to act as a small infant, crying for assistance. Often, the EMD will get the location, an outline of what happened, and no other information.