A review of key national reports to describe the development of paramedic education in England (1966–2014)

Ambulance clinicians implementing evidence-based practice: mind the gap! Attitudes, perceptions and experiences of student paramedics

Background

Evidence-based practice (EBP) represents the conscientious and judicious use of the best contemporaneous evidence in partnership with patient values and clinical expertise to guide healthcare professionals. As a result, EBP is a recommended component of undergraduate education and considered fundamental for improving patient outcomes. EBP principles have thus become deeply rooted in higher education curricula, but only in recent years has this begun to permeate the world of paramedic practice. Despite this paradigm, the impact of EBP may be limited because ambulance clinicians may struggle with implementation, as a variety of barriers influence translation and application.

Methods

A survey study aimed to gain insight into the epistemological and metacognitive barriers impacting student experience in order to help improve teaching and learning practices.

Results

A sample of 64 students, across two different undergraduate paramedic science programmes, were recruited. Of these, 70% of BSc (Hons) students versus 33% of DipHE students agreed to some extent or greater that EBP represented minimal benefit in real-world practice due to Trust policy and the guidelines set out by the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee (Welch's t = 2.571, df = 26, p = 0.016 two-sided). Furthermore, 25% felt standard operating procedures negatively impacted their ability to implement EBP, and 39% reported their EBP learning had improved their ability to implement improved levels of patient care.

Conclusion

A disparity between theoretical learning and EBP implementation was identified. EBP may not dovetail with standard operating procedure within UK ambulance Trusts, resulting in confusion among student paramedics as to the true worth of EBP.

A retrospective survey study of paramedic students' exposure to SARS-CoV-2, participation in the COVID-19 pandemic response, and health-related quality of life

Background

Healthcare workers have reported increased anxiety while working in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of healthcare students in a health crisis has been discussed among clinicians and researchers. The simultaneous international shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) during the first wave of the pandemic potentially exposed healthcare workers and students to the virus during their work and clinical training. Our aim was therefore to evaluate the extent to which paramedic students in Oslo, Norway, were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and were involved in voluntary and/or paid healthcare-related work. An evaluation was also made of the students’ COVID-19-related symptoms and of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the first wave of the pandemic.

Methods

Paramedic students (n = 155) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, were invited to complete an online survey five months after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected. The university was situated in the epicenter of the pandemic in Norway. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, and linear regression analysis.

Results

Of the 109 respondents (70.3%), 40 worked in patient-related healthcare work. Of those, seven (17.5%) students experienced insufficient supplies of PPE, six (15.0%) participated in aerosol-generating procedures without adequate PPE, and nine (22.5%) experienced insufficient time to don PPE. Seventy-five (70.1%) students experienced no COVID-19-related symptoms, and no students tested positive for COVID-19. HRQoL was scored 0.92 (sd 0.12), which was significantly higher than for the general population before the pandemic (p = 0.002). Students continued with their education and participated in a variety of pandemic-related emergency tasks during the first wave of the pandemic.

Conclusions

Paramedic students were valuable contributors to the national pandemic response. Despite potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in unpredictable emergency settings with limited supplies of personal protection equipment, no students tested positive for COVID-19. Their health-related quality of life remained high. Students’ participation and utilization in similar health crises should be considered in future health crises.

European paramedic curriculum-a call for unity in paramedic education on a European level

Background

There have been major developments in healthcare services as well as changes in demographics in recent years, and this has, among other things, led to increased demand for ambulance services. In general, this has also led to calls for more highly educated paramedics.

Main body

Erasmus + provided a grant for three universities and one public service provider in four Nordic countries to work on a harmonised model curriculum for a bachelor’s degree in paramedic education. The project group has now completed the first phase of the project, which was to examine what paramedic education is available in the participating countries and what laws and regulations affect both the operation of ambulance services and the education of paramedics. At the end of the project, a harmonised exemplary curriculum will be available to anyone interested in educating paramedics at the university level.

Conclusions

The growing need for highly educated paramedics should be addressed by offering a bachelor’s degree university education with an exemplary curriculum and coordinating it within Europe. The added value of a harmonised education programme within Europe would thus enable further and deeper collaboration.

Evolution of emergency medical services in Saudi Arabia

Aim: The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the evolution of emergency medical services (EMS) in Saudi Arabia to describe its history, organisational service providers, governance, EMS statistics and the educational development of the field with the disparity of educational approaches. Background: The EMS is an important part of the healthcare system as it is often the first point of contact for medical emergencies. The EMS in Saudi Arabia has seen a number of positive changes over the past decade, some of which include the development of several university and college programs dedicated to teaching EMS, the evaluation of the profession from a post-employment first aid model into a pre-employment bachelor's degree model, the generous governmental scholarship grants overseas and the official accreditation of EMS as a profession. It has been approximately nine years since the first EMS bachelor's degree programs were developed in Saudi Arabia, some of which were directly adopted from universities in developed countries such as Australia. Despite these positive changes, the current EMS system in Saudi is faced with many challenges, both organisational and educational, including the lack of research, community involvement, the educational status of practitioners and the inconsistencies of statistics relating to response time and rate of transfer. This paper describes the history of EMS in Saudi Arabia with a specific focus on identifying the disparity in the educational outcomes and approaches adopted by colleges and universities in the Kingdom. Methods: The data utilised for the research of the EMS profession in Saudi Arabia were obtained from the literature using search tools such as MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Saudi health journals, Saudi university websites, government reports and statistics. Conclusion: The EMS profession in Saudi Arabia has advanced greatly in the past 12 years. Yet there is still scope for considerable improvement, especially with regards to developing empirically identified core competencies for EMS bachelor's degree graduates. There is also the need for providing more outreach to the public to improve awareness of current services and available training, building more collaboration between the industry employers and academic institutions and investing further in EMS research through the development of Saudi-based postgraduate master's and PhD EMS degrees. This paper is the first to provide an overview of the EMS service in Saudi Arabia, for institutions and researchers to gain a better understanding of the history and current standing of the service from an educational and operational perspective.