Book Review

Every time I receive books to review from the JPP editor, I tear off the brown packaging with the enthusiasm of a five-year-old child on Christmas morning. And top of the pile sits another text on clinical leadership—feelings now akin to receiving another pair of white socks on the aforementioned Christmas morn.

Clearly no shortage of texts on this subject, but what makes this one stand out is how it manages to address concepts, such as the NHS Leadership Academy, leadership and competency frameworks, from the perspective of paramedic practice. It is not concerned with the narrative as much as how it translates for our profession.

The primacy which I place on paramedics’ literature being informed by paramedics themselves is not borne out of some narrow professional pride but based on the premise that our practice is discernibly different to other fields of medicine.

Imagine my joy when but a few pages into the text, attention is drawn to the plethora of paramedic profiles that exist in the UK, each with their own scope of practice and perspective on clinical leadership. To compound this new-found elation, and with direct relevance to clinical leadership, a designated chapter on ‘Paramedic Leadership’ is included, as well as one on ‘Decision Making’—addressed specifically from a paramedic's perspective.