Mathias Näsström

Background

I am a registered nurse and specialist nurse in prehospital emergency care, and hold a PhD in Nursing. Since 2026, I have worked as a Senior Lecturer at Mid Sweden University.

Before entering academia, I worked in ambulance services and subsequently spent nine years with the Swedish Police Authority, including operational policing, acting as a field supervisor, police dog handler, and instructor in police conflict management.

My combined professional experience from ambulance care, policing, and academia informs both my research and teaching.

Area of interest

My research focuses on professional decision-making, safety, and collaboration in complex frontline settings, primarily within ambulance services and policing. I am particularly interested in situations characterised by uncertainty, vulnerability, time pressure, and organisational boundaries, where professionals are required to make decisions that may have significant consequences for individuals.

My research in ambulance care includes patient safety, prehospital care of children, intimate partner violence, and the changing role of ambulance services, including collaboration with regional and municipal healthcare services in rural areas.

A developing area of my research concerns policing and collaboration between emergency services. Here, my interests include professional judgement, communication, risk assessment, and responsibility when different professional mandates and organisational logics intersect in complex situations.

Research

My doctoral thesis, Small Patients, Big Challenges: Exploring Child-Centred Approaches in Prehospital Emergency Care (2025), focused on children’s encounters with ambulance services and the conditions required to provide child-centred prehospital care.

Following my PhD, I have continued this research through several studies addressing children and patient safety in ambulance care, including analyses of regulatory and patient-safety reports, emergency dispatch and assessment data, and studies of children’s and adolescents’ experiences and expectations of ambulance care.

I initiated and share responsibility for a research and development project on ambulance services and intimate partner violence, conducted in collaboration with Region Jämtland Härjedalen. The project has been awarded SEK 946,679 by the County Administrative Board of Jämtland.

I also lead an externally funded feasibility study examining collaboration between ambulance services and regional and municipal healthcare in rural areas. The study has been awarded SEK 500,000 and is conducted in collaboration with Region Jämtland Härjedalen and the municipalities of Jämtland County. The aim is to investigate the conditions required for improved coordination around patients who, following ambulance assessment, may receive continued care and support outside hospital.

In addition, I participate in several national and interdisciplinary research projects concerning areas such as paediatric pain in ambulance care, intimate partner violence, nursing education, and policing.

Teaching and tutoring

My teaching is primarily within emergency care and nursing, with a particular focus on structured emergency assessment, simulation-based education, and intimate partner violence. I teach intimate partner violence at both undergraduate and specialist level.

I am course coordinator for a freestanding advanced-level course in emergency care and am involved in clinical skills training, assessment, and clinical education. I am also one of the department’s coordinators for simulation-based education and contribute to the development of simulation across the nursing programme.

I currently lead the development and establishment of the Specialist Nursing Programme in Ambulance Care at Mid Sweden University.

I supervise undergraduate degree projects and am a co-supervisor of a doctoral student.

Other information

I am a member of the AHRN, EmCare, and CISA research and collaboration networks.

I was a member of the national working group that developed the revised national competency framework for specialist nurses in ambulance care, published by the Swedish Society of Nursing and the Swedish Association of Ambulance Nurses in 2022.

I also serve as a peer reviewer for several international scientific journals within prehospital care, nursing, and child health.