This research seeks to understand the links between the culture in ambulance trusts, management decision making and the support provided to Disabled staff. The study will look at the understanding of the term disability, how it is viewed and what is involved in the decision-making process when a request for support is made.
Every year in England, there are around 8 million calls to the ambulance service. Only around 1 in 10 of these will be a serious emergency. The rest might have a health need that requires a different level of care - such as from a GP, pharmacist, or nurse. Some may even be patients that paramedics can treat and leave at home. It is hard for ambulance staff to work out what the exact care need of the complex patient is. There are lots of reasons for this, such as limited access to that patient's health data and a lack of available technology. In this study, we want to know what ambulance people think about the use of technology in these patients. The new knowledge from this study will help us understand why ambulance services are not using them to identify the care needs. We will ask lots of different types of ambulance people. These might be paramedics who respond in an ambulance. They could also be people who make the decisions on what technology goes on an ambulance. The way we will be asking all these people is through an interview. This lets us ask lots of questions to everyone, making sure we get all their views and beliefs. We can then look at all the answers and find what they all agree and disagree on about the topic. The way we have designed the study allows us to take the sample and generalise it to all UK ambulance services. This means the results will lead to a new way of thinking about how to bring this technology to the clinicians who need it, and to the patients who could benefit from it. Once we can work out the answers to these questions, we can start to create new care plans and help these patients in a meaningful way.
Ambulance clinicians often encounter challenging situations involving patient deaths and serious accidents, requiring them to provide bereavement care to affected families. However, research indicates that many ambulance clinicians feel unprepared for this role, citing a lack of formal training in breaking bad news (BBN) and managing bereavement. This can lead to significant emotional strain, impacting their mental health, professional performance, and personal lives. Existing coping strategies and training protocols, such as SPIKES and GRIE_VING, have shown some promise but are not widely known or implemented in pre-hospital care. This study aims to address these challenges by exploring the perspectives and practices of ambulance clinicians in the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) regarding bereavement care. The research seeks to understand how clinicians perceive their role in supporting families and to identify potential improvements in bereavement care delivery, both for the families and for the clinicians themselves. The study employs a mixed-methods approach. It will begin with a quantitative survey of NEAS clinicians to gather insights into their current bereavement care practices. This will be followed by focus group discussions to explore their experiences in greater depth. Participants will include frontline NEAS ambulance clinicians who have encountered bereavement care situations in the past five years. Findings from this research will provide valuable insights into the realities of bereavement care in pre-hospital settings and help to inform evidence-based strategies for training and support. Ultimately, the goal is to enhance bereavement care for families and better equip ambulance clinicians for this critical aspect of their role.
The study aims to obtain a comprehensive view of the EDI landscape within prehospital critical care by exploring a diverse range of clinician perspectives. This includes those currently working within critical care roles and those from the broader prehospital workforce who may aspire to or have previously sought critical care positions. By capturing positive and challenging experiences in accessing and progressing within critical care roles, this study seeks to identify actionable insights that will benefit all levels of the prehospital clinical workforce. The study is in the form of an anonymous online questionnaire. It is a collaboration between AAKSS and SECamb.
The study investigates paramedics’ coping actions for sustainable long-term work performance and burnout prevention. The research focuses on what individuals are doing to cope with their day-to-day stressors and the actions they take that may contribute to recovery and be protective against burnout. The research will involve short interviews to collect the data which should take 30 minutes. The interview will be conducted online (e.g. via Microsoft Teams). During the interview, the participant will be asked a series of questions about their experience of their job as a paramedic. Specifically, we will ask about day-to-day responsibilities, how individuals cope with these and if there are any challenges to applying coping strategies. With permission, the interview will be recorded, but participants can choose to keep their cameras off if they wish. Inclusion criteria: current or former practising paramedics, aged 18 and over, who can give informed consent. Exclusion criteria: Paramedic Students or individuals currently diagnosed with and receiving treatment for mental health disorders, such as burnout, mood and anxiety disorders.
Aim: Co-create a curriculum framework for pre-registration paramedic practice-based-learning (PrBL) which empowers educators to utilise new ways of learning whilst maintaining professional relevance. Cycle 1 – Current Knowledge and Practice - Conduct a Scoping Review to synthesise literature evidence of PrBL practice in paramedic education - Determine current paramedic PrBL practice in the UK via a survey of pre-registration education providers. Cycle 2 – Curriculum Framework Development - Synthesise literature on curriculum frameworks and relevant educational theory to support creation of the Paramedic PrBL framework - Co-Create with relevant stakeholders a provisional curriculum framework for PrBL pre-registration paramedicine Cycle 3 – Evaluation and Implementation - Evaluate and refine curriculum framework with relevant stakeholders through a collaborative approach. - Seek addition to College of Paramedics Curriculum guidance via collaboration with the professional educational directorate.
Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter (AF) are associated with an increased risk of stroke and systemic embolism. This risk can be substantially reduced using oral anticoagulant (OAC) medications, but as AF can be asymptomatic, it often goes unnoticed. Ambulance clinicians can therefore sometimes detect AF as an incidental finding during their routine assessment of patients. In the instance of the patient then not being taken to hospital, this information needs to be passed on to the general practitioner (GP) for review and follow up. Currently, individual clinicians contact GPs directly to let them know when AF is identified, which is not always possible and can take time. In partnership with ambulance clinicians and GPs, we have developed a new tool within the existing ambulance electronic patient care record so that a letter can automatically be sent to the GP, with the ECG attached, for patients in whom incidental AF is detected. In the year after this notification process launches we will measure how often it is used, whether the GP record has been updated with the AF diagnosis and if appropriate medication was then prescribed. Data from comparator patients in the year before the intervention was live will also be analysed, as well as those eligible but not exposed to the new notification process.
Paramedic clinical practice has seen significant evolution from the traditional role of transporting patients to an emergency department (ED). An evolving and flexible scope of practice, modernisation and healthcare reform has necessitated the development of a range of referral pathways for paramedics, with the aim of ensuring that service users receive the most appropriate care at point of contact. Ambulance conveyance rates to EDs in Northern Ireland (NI) have only occasionally fallen below 75%. A study examining a Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) referral pathway showed a much lower referral rate than those of comparable ambulance services. A similar study found that over 70% of people who experience a fall are not referred to falls prevention services. This study aimed to identify what paramedics perceive the barriers and facilitators to the use of appropriate care pathways (ACPs) in NI are.
This qualitative study is exploring stakeholder perspectives with experience of paramedics working in primary care, on the education and training required to work effectively as a paramedic in primary care settings, establishing whether paramedics have the appropriate education, training, and skills and whether this model is sustainable.
The method for training paramedics has changed over the last 20-30 years as the paramedic profession has evolved itself and this has resulted in a situation where there are paramedics operating within this field of clinical practice with varying levels of education. This may not represent a major challenge, however, many of those who were trained under the older style programmes have a desire to top-up for reasons of personal development and career progression. The number of registered paramedics with non-degree level education across the UK is unknown and there is a paucity of research in this area. Additionally, their educational needs and aspirations have not formally been identified. This could prove useful to higher education institutions seeking to develop such programmes, the regulator in terms of the overall education status of the paramedic profession as a whole and employers in relation to the continuous professional development of their workforce.
West Midlands Ambulance Service crews are taking blood and saliva samples at first point of contact with suspected stroke patients. These are then tested in University of Birmingham facilities to see if we can identify stroke biomarkers in these ultra-early samples.
This research aims to assess the impact of Community First Responder (CFR) involvement on the outcomes of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) cases within the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) region. The study will focus on the Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) rate, alongside secondary outcomes such as bystander interventions and clinical management metrics, comparing CFR-attended and non-CFR-attended cases. It will also examine the specific impact of the Newcastle University First Responder Scheme on OHCA outcomes. The project will analyse routinely collected OHCA data from 2019 to 2024, using a retrospective cohort design. The primary aim is to investigate whether CFR involvement leads to improved ROSC rates and other clinical outcomes. A secondary focus will be on exploring the effectiveness of the Newcastle University CFR scheme within the NEAS region. Building on a 2023 analysis of urban and rural OHCA outcomes, this study will expand the dataset to five years of data. This broader scope will allow for a more detailed exploration of CFR impact, specifically whether CFR intervention is linked to improved ROSC at hospital. The study will use anonymised data from NEAS’s OHCA audit database, including key variables such as CFR dispatch status, bystander CPR, and ROSC rates. Statistical analyses using SPSS will compare outcomes between CFR and non-CFR cases, adjusting for confounders like demographics and response times. The findings will add to the evidence base on the role of CFRs in OHCA care, providing insights into their effectiveness in improving clinical outcomes. These results will inform future initiatives involving CFRs. The research will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications to the British Paramedic Journal, conference presentations, and internal reports to NEAS and other CFR schemes. This research has received funding from the College of Paramedics small research grant.