It is not every day you are asked to review a book written by esteemed colleagues and friends—but here I am. In this month's book review, I am reviewing Prehospital Research Methods and Practice, edited by Professor Niro Siriwardena and Dr Greg Whitley. The two editors are of course well-known experts in prehospital research, with the list of authors including paramedic researchers and experienced academics mainly from across the UK, but also including colleagues from Australia and the United States.
The book title may refer to ‘prehospital research’ but the preface rightly acknowledges that the book encompasses prehospital, ambulance, emergency medical services and urgent care research. The rationale for putting this book together was to ‘provide an accessible and up-to-date textbook broadly covering applied research methods’ in this setting—and the editors have definitely brought it all together to achieve that.
If you are an undergraduate or postgraduate (paramedic) student undertaking research in this field, this book is certainly one to pick up. It provides much more than a brief introduction, touching on really complicated issues within prehospital research and wtaking deep dives into many of these. Key research approaches are clearly explained and illustrative examples are provided throughout.
Why prehospital research?
Chapter 1 provides an introduction that starts by defining (prehospital) research and justifying its importance. For example, it points out an 800% increase of prehospital research on the PubMed database in the last 20 years. Further on in the chapter, an overview of prehospital clinical trials is provided and clear examples are given of how research has challenged and changed paramedic practice.
The topics of evidence-based practice and qualitative/quantitative/mixed-methods research are also introduced, as well as the more complex literature on research paradigms. The complex nature of these topics may be slightly difficult for research-naïve readers to comprehend but the authors use clear explanations and easily understandable language to make them as accessible as possible.
Ethical principles
Chapter 2 focuses on the ethics of prehospital research. Of course, there are quite a few books focusing on ethics within the paramedic profession and medical setting more broadly. However, within this book, the emphasis is on the ethical principles that need to be considered when conducting a research study, including a variety of different forms of consent and identification of participants. Helpful examples are provided throughout this chapter, which bring the ethical rules and guidelines to life, and allow the reader to plan how they would address and navigate this path for their own research study.
Three Key Takeaways
Study types
Although I would love to continue summarising this book chapter-by-chapter, I fear this would make for a rather unimaginative book review and take away from your own enjoyment of reading the book—and I would not describe things as eloquently as the authors themselves do!
In summary, therefore, chapters 3–8 introduce the reader to different study types in turn, including systematic reviews, observational studies, (quasi-) experimental designs, qualitative research, mixed-methods research and consensus methods.
Critical appraisal and preparing a paper
Chapters 9 and 10 do deserve a special mention. Chapter 9 is a gentle guide to critically appraising a paper and preparing a paper for publication. Although the author covers a lot of ground in this chapter, it is structured so well that it manages not to feel overwhelming. Readers wishing to focus either on critiquing or drafting a paper, could easily concentrate only on that part of the chapter. However, I would advise that knowledge of both of these aspects is important—after all, the paper you draft will be critically appraised by others so anticipating what they will be looking at is time well spent.
Quality improvement
Chapter 10 talks about quality improvement, which although distinct from research, is closely linked. In fact, many ‘research projects’ that are conducted at undergraduate level are quality improvement or service evaluation, so it is certainly pertinent to include this in an introductory book on prehospital research. Once again, practical examples bring this chapter to life and hopefully leave the reader with a strong sense that quality improvement and/or research is something that they can do themselves, guided by this amazing resource and ideally supported by an experienced team of paramedic researchers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I wish this book had been around when I was a student. Rather than reading through generic healthcare research books and feeling like prehospital research was something done to paramedics rather than led by paramedics, this book has the potential to inspire and equip a generation of paramedics to undertake research.
I would recommend this book to anyone thinking of undertaking research in the prehospital setting—whether undergraduate student, postgraduate student, research paramedic or just your everyday paramedic with an idea or question that just might turn into a research project.