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Australian paramedic graduates transitioning into UK NHS ambulance services: what are the potential challenges?

02 October 2015
Features
02 October 2015
Volume 7 · Issue 10

Abstract

With United Kingdom (UK) Ambulance National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and Foundation Trusts actively recruiting Australian paramedic graduates, this article seeks to stimulate discussion by identifying differences existing between the two ambulance systems, as well as highlighting potential challenges that Australian graduates may face when transitioning to the UK ambulance service. It also identifies similarities between Australian and UK ambulance systems, which may assist new graduates to overcome the transition shock. This article suggests that transition shock is not solely related to Australian graduates moving to the UK, and may well be present for graduates moving to comparable international ambulance services in Canada, the Middle East, Ireland and South Africa.

United Kingdom (UK) ambulance services are actively recruiting Australian paramedic graduates (Wallis et al, 2015). In this article, we seek to stimulate discussion by briefly examining the differences and some similarities between the two systems with a view to highlighting potential challenges that Australian graduates may encounter when transitioning into UK Ambulance National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and Foundation Trusts. These challenges may not be unique to Australian graduates transitioning to the UK, and may be applicable to other graduates moving to international ambulance services based on the Anglo-American model of practice.

University paramedic programmes in Australia and the UK commenced as early as 1994 in Australia (Fields, 1994; Lord, 2003) and 1998 in the UK (Carney, 1999). The transition of paramedic education and training from an apprenticeship in-house vocational model to a pre-employment university model increasingly means that new entrants to the profession must first gain a bachelor's degree before applying to an ambulance service for employment.

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Ambulance
Australian
Globalisation
Graduates
Transition
UK