What an ambulance nurse needs to know: A content analysis of curricula in the specialist nursing programme in prehospital emergency care

• In Sweden ambulances must be staffed by at least one registered nurse.
• Curricula concerning medical and nursing science for ambulance nurses were analyzed.
• The result showed categories in medical, nursing and contextual knowledge.
• The least focus was on nursing, the registered nurses main profession.

In Sweden, ambulances must be staffed by at least one registered nurse. Twelve universities offer education in ambulance nursing. There is no national curriculum for detailed course content and there is a lack of knowledge about the educational content that deals with the ambulance nurse practical professional work. The aim of this study was to describe the content in course curricula for ambulance nurses. A descriptive qualitative research design with summative content analysis was used. Data were generated from 49 courses in nursing and medical science. The result shows that the course content can be described as medical, nursing and contextual knowledge with a certain imbalance with largest focus on medical knowledge. There is least focus on nursing, the registered nurses' main profession. This study clarifies how the content in the education for ambulance nurses in Sweden looks today but there are reasons to discuss the content distribution.