STEPUK: step into the team

The Society for Trauma, Emergency Medicine/Nursing and Pre-Hospital Care (STEPUK, www.stepuk.org) was founded in 2009 following a successful two-year interprofessional pilot scheme headed by two medical students at the University of Warwick.

The pilot was met with much success and many specialists across the UK, healthcare students from other universities and providers of prehospital care expressed an interest in the group. This large scale interest in interprofessional undergraduate prehospital and emergency care education led to the development of an innovative society with a broad range of aims.

There are currently seventeen university groups involved in this initiative. Students from these university groups have developed their leadership and teamwork skills by engaging in a STEPUK committee at a university, regional and national level.

These groups have been supported in arranging lectures by experts, prehospital events with an award winning fire extrication team and the voluntary aid societies. They have developed emergency care and interprofessional research and presented their work to other students and, as part of a workshop, delivered at a national teaching conference.