professional

Clinical care in the warm zone: a responder's perspective upon clinical practice in support of UK tactical medical operations

Remaining effective within the tactical environment requires clinicians to assess the effectiveness of their clinical practice, while continuously ensuring that their safety is not being compromised....

Critical care paramedics: who's doing what?

‘It is refreshing to see a more balanced, less adversarial and critical appraisal of some of the issues in pre-hospital trauma care’ .

Developing the concept of a multi-professional pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM) practitioner training programme

The term ‘pre-hospital emergency medicine’ (PHEM) covers a wide range of medical conditions from minor illness and injury to life-threatening emergencies. Pre-hospital interventions therefore also...

Legal and professional boundaries: a case study

Laura is 29 years old and has schizophrenia. She is also 30 weeks pregnant. Her partner (Simon) has called 999—she has not been taking her medication for several days as she wrongly believed it might...

Training versus education: the terminology

‘When we look at how pre-hospital clinicians are currently taught, we see a distinct transition away from using the term training, with current literature favouring the term education’ .

The duty of candour applies to you and your employer

‘The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provision of services, whether or not the information has been requested and whether or not a...

Can paramedics treat sepsis?

The Pre-hospital Piperacillin/Tazobactam (PrePip) project tested the concept that UK paramedics could accurately recognise sepsis, aseptically take blood cultures, and safely and rapidly treat septic...

The search and rescue helicopter paramedic: an emerging role

The SAR paramedic role is at an exciting stage in its development. Not only is it transitioning from a predominantly military-provided service to a civilian contracted one, but also SAR paramedics are...

Are coaching and mentoring skills crucial for ambulance service managers? A personal reflection

In the 1960s, the use of the term ‘coaching’ by some experts was different to the perception we have today. Use of the term was perhaps more aligned to my own interpretation, which is, intuitively, to...