Filling the paramedic gap
There is a national crisis of paramedics missing from practice that needs to be addressed. The temporary Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register set up during the pandemic demonstrated that there are paramedics in England with the potential and desire to return to practice. It is essential that we are proactive in channelling this workforce with their currently untapped knowledge, skills and experience back into health and care sectors.
In 2022, Coventry University was successfully awarded a tender by NHS England Workforce Training & Education, formally Health Education England, to create and deliver a blended course for ‘Return to Practice’. The 12-month target was 50 returnees. By the end of the financial year, we had enrolled 100 former HCPC registrants (10 paramedics) onto the course and had a waiting list.
From across England, we saw excitement from all regional AHP groups to become involved and we leapt at this opportunity for co-production. Over 50 AHPs passionately joined our team to offer each returnee their profession-specific mentoring as required by the HCPC. In turn, we invested in them. They have been supported through the university, accessing mentorship and coaching development programme, have access to the university academic development portfolio and are core to the team. Mentors' drop-in sessions and a shared Teams space enable ongoing collaboration across professions for the mentors and enhance the quality of the provision.
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