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AIM: The aim of the study was to identify the types of knowledge that Swedish Emergency Medical Service (EMS) managers considered desirable in their Ambulance Clinicians.

BACKGROUND: Emergency medical service managers are responsible for organisational tasking and in this are dependent on the knowledge possessed by their ambulance clinicians. It would therefore be of value to explore EMS managers' approach to this knowledge.

DESIGN: A modified Delphi method in three rounds.

METHODS: In total thirty-six EMS managers participated, and twenty-four finished all three rounds. They were encouraged to rate each sub-category, and the ten with the highest mean were interdependently ranked in the final round.

RESULTS: Five categories and twenty-six sub-categories emerged in the first round, covering knowledge related to; contextual aspects, medical and holistic assessments, formal education and organisational issues. Eventually, the sub-category 'Knowledge to assess the patient's situation from a holistic perspective' was the highest ranked, followed by 'Medical knowledge to assess and care for different diseases' and 'Knowledge to be able to care for critically ill patients'.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together the knowledge areas address essentially medical care, contextual aspects and nursing. The boundaries between these can sometimes be seen as elusive, calling for ambulance clinicians to balance these areas of knowledge.