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Article History

Received: 3 April 2020

Accepted: 15 November 2020

First Online: 26 November 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study was registered with The Danish Data Protection Agency, reference number 617698, case number 1–16–02-131-17.We consulted The Central Denmark Regional Committee on Health Research Ethics who told us that qualitative studies, like this project, which applies participant observations and interview studies are excepted from report in accordance with the Act on Research Ethics Review of Health Research Projects § 14, stk. 2. ( / ).The implication of this is also that there is no legal demand in terms of written consent, and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and specifically the principle of data minimisation ( - Chap II, Art. 5, c), we decided to obtain only verbal consent during the participant observation in the ED as we did not record personal information referable to the patients and/or relatives. They were informed of the project, and asked if the researcher could follow them. For the interviews we obtained written consent. Thus, the patients and/or relatives who agreed to participate in the telephone interview after they left the ED, granted written consent before leaving the ED, and at that point we recorded their name and telephone number. Those who participated in the in-depth interviews at a later stage granted a new written consent on the day of the interview. Patients and relatives were informed that they were guaranteed confidentiality, that their participation was voluntary, and that they could withdraw from the project at any time. All data were anonymized and pseudonyms were used throughout the article.The project was carried out in accordance with the code of ethics of the American Anthropological Association

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.