Influence of life experience on undergraduate paramedic students’ placement

Traditionally paramedicine has been considered a vocational career (College of Paramedics (CoP), 2008); however, contemporary discussion supports the need for ambulance service education to be exclusively higher education institute (HEI) based (Department of Health (DH), 2005; CoP, 2008; Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, 2011).

Paramedics trained via the traditional Institute of Healthcare and Development (IHCD) route are often sceptical of the move toward university education (Cooper, 2005); during focus groups conducted in Cooper’s qualitative study, participants questioned the need for academic qualifications, suggesting that ambulance service clinicians relied more on ‘life’ experience; this may be due to feeling more comfortable with the traditional ‘working’ route to paramedic registration, joining an ambulance service in a non–emergency capacity and progressing through various ranks to that of a paramedic.

Undergraduate student paramedics come from a wide age range and varied backgrounds to study paramedicine; HEI students are expected to undertake a minimum of 1 500 hours supervised clinical placement to gain eligibility for the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register as paramedics (CoP, 2008). Within the programme where this study was completed placement time is carried out in a supernumerary capacity, practising under the supervision of a named mentor the student is formatively and summatively assessed. Active and comprehensive engagement is therefore vital during placement, this includes understanding of the specific placement area, the importance of learning contracts and making the most of every learning opportunity. Successful engagement in placement will allow the student to achieve a set of mandatory summative learning outcomes as well as individually agreed personal learning contract objectives.