Leadership & Management

Perceptions and experiences of mental health support for ambulance employees

This study was designed to meet five objectives, the first of which was to investigate work-related stressful events and how they relate to staff characteristics, such as job role and gender, and...

Innovations in preoperative control of exsanguination in major trauma

The commonest and most immediate setting of trauma-related mortality is the scene of the incident. Pfeifer et al's (2019) systematic review of more than 7000 trauma deaths found up to 47.6% of these...

Mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers: an ethical dilemma?

Vaccine hesitancy is defined by the WHO as a ‘refusal or delay in vaccine acceptance despite availability of vaccine services’ (Butler and MacDonald, 2015)..

Beyond STEMI: paramedics' views on how to improve their ability to interpret ECGs

A mixed-methods study combining quantitative and qualitative analysis was designed (Schifferdecker and Reed, 2009). The authors used the explanatory model (Schifferdecker and Reed, 2009), with the...

Applying organisational behaviour theory to aid emergency staff retention

Stemming from the works of Barnard (1938) and Follett (1941), organisational behaviour theory is characterised by its approach to the analysis of an organisation and its people on a macro scale. The...

Virtual reality training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation in schools

Teaching CPR to children in school in various ways can be effective (Plant and Taylor, 2015), and mandatory CPR training for schoolchildren may provide an opportunity to improve the bystander CPR...

A decision theory overview and case-based discussion

The example given in this article uses a hospital inpatient to discuss the difficulties in diagnosing those with undifferentiated pathology, but the themes relate directly to prehospital care. The...

History and experience of a volunteer ambulance first responder scheme in London

Scott Bateman, a Royal Air Force pilot, wanted to explore ways of reducing the time taken for life-saving interventions to reach a patient, having experienced the cardiac arrest of a family member. In...

Paramedic-led acute home visiting services in primary care

First, a brief analysis is required to understand the paramedic profession's journey from their traditional background in ambulance services to working for primary care providers..

Winning in winter with marginal gains: enhancing welfare on the frontline

The welfare van was a resource without an operational call sign and, as such, was a hidden asset in the context of EOC planning and resource availability. Local management were explicit that crews...

Paramedic prescribing: implementation in practice

Expectations were identified in policy papers, published guidance and reports from various organisations with an interest in paramedic prescribing (Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), 1999;...