Codes relating to uncertainty theme
| Subtheme | Code | Interviews (n) | Frequency (n) |
| Uncertain diagnosis | Few pre-hospital diagnostic aids for major bleeding | 10 | 31 |
| Haemorrhage mimics can confuse diagnosis | 8 | 22 | |
| Difficult to prognosticate | 8 | 19 | |
| Need to compile information and make a global assessment | 8 | 9 | |
| Differentiating minor bleeding from major bleeding | 7 | 13 | |
| Haemodynamic assessment maybe misleading | 6 | 17 | |
| Fallibility of haemodynamic parameters | 6 | 16 | |
| Clinical examination is not 100% accurate | 6 | 7 | |
| Individual patient variability | 5 | 15 | |
| Clinical unknowns relating to the patient (eg, extent of their injury) | 4 | 12 | |
| Uncertain intervention effect | Immediate effect of a given intervention | ||
| Benefit of transfusion (includes clotting, oxygen delivery, perfusion, preload) | 9 | 52 | |
| Weighing up benefit and harm | 9 | 16 | |
| Risks of transfusion (includes dilution, increased BP, immunological effects, BBV, VTE, metabolic) | 5 | 17 | |
| Recognition of threshold variation between clinicians when to start transfusion | 5 | 7 | |
| Future effect of a given intervention | |||
| Transfusion mitigates future pathological states (eg, TIC/MODS) | 6 | 8 | |
| Blood transfusion improves patient’s physiological state in moderate bleeding patients | 3 | 3 | |
| No perceived effect of a given intervention | |||
| Rapid transport to hospital is key | 4 | 6 |
‘Interviews’ refers to the number of interviews in which a code was identified. ‘Frequency’ refers to a count of each code in every interview.
BBV, bloodborne virus; MODS, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome; TIC, trauma-induced coagulopathy; VTE, venous thromboembolism.