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Using patient experiences of emergency and unscheduled care for quality improvement

08 October 2012
Features
02 October 2012
Volume 4 · Issue 10

Abstract

Paramedics like, all health care professionals are required to support and justify their actions through evidence based practice. A concept that for many years now has focused on clinical and randomised control trials to produce its sole evidence base. This article explores the growing recognition in recent decades among all healthcare professions not just paramedicine, that the collection and analysis of the experiences of service users, family, friends and carers cannot only justify practitioner actions, but improve the quality of emergency and unscheduled care services.

Bradley (2005) reinforced by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (2011) clearly state that only 10 % of patients calling 999 actually have a life threatening emergency, with the majority having problems which are psychological and sociological in origin. These reports further removed the already changing perception and labels of paramedicine as solely an emergency life threatening service, and highlighted that most unscheduled care can have an element of planning, for which the thoughts, experiences and opinions of those who use them are required.

The era of the patient as the passive recipient of care has changed and is being replaced by a partnership approach in which patients are empowered through information to contribute ideas that can help in their treatment and care (Boran, 2009). This article explores the concept that paramedic practitioner intransigence is no longer seen as conducive to fully effective healthcare, and investigates what is actually meant by the terms patient, quality and user involvement. It aims to highlight how these concepts can forge a shift in power from health care practioner (HCP) to individual, as well as increasing the use of user involvement methods portrayed as being important in the ongoing quest to improve emergency and unscheduled care services (Taylor and Benger, 2004).

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Consultation
Empowerment
Expert patient
Narratives
Patient experience
User involvement