I had an interesting conversation the other day with a former nurse who claimed that my work, publishing research and clinical articles for providers of health care, affects theoretical professional knowledge—but doesn't have an impact on real people. Of course a person's knowledge is going to affect the way they provide care to a person; but besides that, in today's era of evidence-based practice, we are all working together in a cycle to not only advance the profession of paramedics and other prehospital care providers, but to improve the standard of care being delivered to patients.
You practise as a paramedic, educator, leader or researcher, you conduct a study, collect and analyse data, draw results and conclusions, and then apply those findings back into your practice again. The same goes for the following and creation of guidelines—which are also cyclical in nature—or the observations of best practice or service innovations which are then published, disseminated and replicated, or which then inspire similar novel approaches and services to come to fruition.
I form part of the step in the cycle that helps to disseminate your findings and impact upon the way practice is shaped in future. Research and practice are not disconnected, nor are they linear—they go around in a circle, improving the data that improves the care, and improving the care that advances the data.
Another vital piece of this puzzle is that of support from your peers—and one form this takes is peer review. It can be daunting to write and submit something for publication, possibly for the first time, and to feel that your peers may tear apart your work. However, it's important to remember that peer reviewers are usually volunteering their time, that is already in short supply with their full-time clinical, teaching and research roles, and balancing their home lives. They take time out to read the work of paramedic authors, old and new, and to offer their expertise, insight and constructive feedback to support the forward movement of the paramedic profession, and of those paramedic authors.
They also help to develop the publications that are here to serve paramedic communities. Members of the referee panel on the Journal of Paramedic Practice are an indispensible and highly valued part of our team. In this issue, we recognise the contributions of our peer reviewers of 2018 on p. 508—a big thank you to you all.
On p. 524, Coppola highlights the importance of paramedic engagement in novice research while on p. 540, ‘outsider’ Keegan Shepard points out that while the paramedic profession has come a long way in terms of leading its own research, there is still a long way to go and until we ‘arrive’ so to speak, much of the research conducted in the paramedic sphere continues to be carried out by people like himself—people who don't form part of the profession. Therefore, it is essential that wherever you are in your career, whether you've never conducted a study or been published, or you've helped to build the foundation of the current paramedic-led evidence base, that you continue to share your knowledge and experience to advance the profession, and to help advance your peers.
There are many people in health care who remain completely separate from the world of research, because they think of it as an academic task which is unrelated to the frontline. This could not be further from the truth: every paramedic should continue to cycle through the ‘practice, research, publish, practice’ cycle in their careers—for the profession, and for your patients.