Research

Ketamine administration by HART paramedics: a clinical audit review

In the UK, ketamine is primarily used as an in-hospital anaesthetic agent; but when used in small doses, can be an effective and safe analgesic (Motov et al, 2015). Unlike morphine, ketamine maintains...

Adult intraosseous access: a comparison of devices

The following medical literature databases were searched: Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED); British Nursing Index (BNI); CINAHL Plus; Cochrane Library; Medline; and PubMed. A range of...

A qualitative exploration of current paramedic cardiac auscultation practices

CA is a skill using both the bell and diaphragm of a stethoscope on the praecordium to identify both normal and abnormal sounds emanating from the heart. This is part of a complete examination of the...

Death notification delivery and training methods

Delivery of DNs poses difficulties for a number of reasons. Firstly, clinicians only receive one chance to deliver a DN to family members, which is a cognitive challenge and gives no margin for error...

Secondary traumatic stress and resilience among EMS

The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) assesses the ability to recover from stressful situations. The BRS is a validated self-report 6-item scale rating one of the highest levels of quality for measuring...

Cooling of thermal burn injuries: a literature review

The use of the PICO technique (O'Connor et al, 2008) determined initial keywords around the topic and further synonyms were then generated. The chosen search strategy was ‘burns AND cool* AND outcome...

Paramedic views on clinical research in cardiac arrest

Of the paramedics who were eligible, 60% responded to the exit survey (n=101)..

Medical vs. true physical traffic collision entrapment

This article reports data collected during a prospective, observational study carried out in the West Midland Fire Service's metropolitan area from October 2010–March 2012. All cases were patients who...

Fitness-to-practise concerns and preventative strategies

Paramedics function at the frontline of emergency care practice. A literature review identified a number of themes that illuminate their practice:.

Defibrillation: standard vs. double sequential in adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

As the most serious cardiac rhythm disturbance, VF causes disordered cardiac electrical activity resulting in rapid, unsynchronised ventricular contractions, reduced pumping-action, collapse and...

Acute stress and frontline healthcare providers

The presence of PTSD amongst healthcare workers may be of particular concern owing to the potential symptoms of hypervigilance, irritability, difficulty concentrating, avoidance behaviours, feelings...

What is the most appropriate out-of-hospital opioid for adults with traumatic pain?

Major trauma is a minor element of the total workload in emergency care, with estimations of less than 0.2% of the total workload (National Audit Office (NAO), 2010). Trauma such as dislocation,...