The care of patients assessed as not in need of emergency ambulance care – Registered nurses’ lived experiences

•The care is a struggle between competing demands of different expectations.•A high workload of non-acuity patients leads to a risk of losing empathy.•Formal directives and support are needed in the care of non-acuity patients. The aim of this study was to describe the care of patients assessed as not in need of emergency ambulance care, from Registered Nurse’s lived experiences. Non-emergency patients in need of ambulance care are described as vulnerable and patients in ambulance care have earlier been found to be dependent on the Registered Nurse. However, little is known about the care of non-emergency patients in the ambulance setting, from the perspective of Registered Nurses. A reflective lifeworld research design was chosen. Five Registered Nurses with experience of ambulance care were individually interviewed. The result reveals the essence of the phenomenon as a desire to provide good care in an on-going struggle between one’s own and others’ expectations. Three meaning constituents emerged in the description; Being in a struggle between different expectations, Being in a questioned professional role, and Being in lack of support and formal directives. Registered Nurses’ care for patients assessed as not in need of emergency ambulance care, is a complex struggle between different expectations. This may be related to the encounter between the nurse’s and the patient’s lifeworld.