Acute medical emergencies are unpredictable yet inevitable in educational environments; however, universities lack clear, standardized procedures to guide responses in classroom settings. This study explores institutional preparedness and classroom emergency response at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Using an observational, cross-sectional qualitative design, data were collected through a review of institutional documents alongside semi-structured interviews with students and instructors (n=6) who had experienced or responded to a classroom medical emergency. Findings indicate that responses to acute medical events are largely unstructured and shaped by those present, rather than guided by formal protocols, resulting in variability in care, uncertainty in decision making, and heightened feelings of vulnerability among those involved. Participants described difficulty recognizing emergencies, hesitation to initiate a response, and ambiguity about role responsibilities, with actions emerging through informal coordination rather than predefined expectations. Although preparedness resources exist at the institutional level, they are often broad, inconsistently structured, and not tailored to classroom-specific situations, limiting their practical usability in real time response. Together, these findings highlight a critical disconnect between the presence of institutional preparedness and its effectiveness in shaping emergency response, suggesting that preparedness is constrained not by resource availability but by how guidance is communicated, structured, and applied in practice.
Katherine Hemby (Thu,) studied this question.