Leadership and Management

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...

Plan for quality improvement: the ‘Legal High’ Guide

‘Legal highs’ were highlighted by the media after suspected deaths across several countries were associated with the use of mephedrone (also known as ‘meow meow’ or M-CAT), with 70 in the UK. The...

An introduction to black humour as a coping mechanism for student paramedics

Before going any further it is necessary to define the term ‘gallows humour’. Gallows humour is a type of humour that arises from stressful, traumatic or life-threatening situations (Moran and Massam,...

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’ .

Emergency medical services (EMS) and waste: a review of the literature on sustainable EMS waste management

It has been claimed that ‘climate change presents the biggest single threat to health in the 21st century’ (Costello et al, 2009: 1693). As a result of this, services need to plan for the health...

Spotlight on Research

As the title alludes to, this study took place across 10 European emergency medical services with the aim of determining if real-time objective feedback, while training on manikins, improves CPR...

Equal value of physical and mental health: transforming outcomes by 2021

There were three major themes highlighted in the Taskforce's findings. Prevention of mental health problems and tackling the stigma associated with them featured highly in the priorities of both...

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...