The education and role of the new nurse paramedic

Care provision is changing and, with it, innovations in healthcare delivery are developing exponentially. One such innovation is the enhanced scope of practice within the community paramedic role. These roles are proving invaluable at reducing conveyance rates and enhancing the patient experience, however are complicated by undefined and varying scopes, causing inequity of care across the UK (Suserud and Haljamae, 1997; Cooper et al, 2004; Machen et al, 2007; Spencer, 2016).

With this in mind, along with treatment innovations across primary, acute and emergency sectors, the development of a new integrated practitioner with a defined skill set was conceived—and the nurse paramedic was born.

Nurse paramedics are not a novel concept internationally—yet evidence of their effectiveness remains largely unpublished. They already exist in Australia and parts of Scandinavia, including Finland and, in some form, in Norway. The combined use of nursing and paramedicine skills is internationally an enhanced professional pathway within many countries (Rasi, 2014; Plummer et al, 2017). In the UK, this has not previously been a suitable option owing to significant differences in higher education-level training (diploma and bachelor's degree) and in the level of skills and practice requirements for each profession.