Research

Carrying out research, critical appraisal, ethics and stakeholder involvement

Research skills are a requirement under the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards for paramedic registration. Paramedics must ‘recognise the value of research to the critical evaluation of practice’. Research in the medical field is important in order to improve the knowledge of clinicians and inform evidence-based practice. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the key components of the research process, use of a PICO [population, intervention, comparison, outcome] tool...

Understanding the statistics in cardiac arrest survival

Cardiac arrests have a 100% mortality rate if no resuscitation efforts have been made within the first 10 minutes. American physician, Sebastian Sepulveda, explores the data surrounding sudden cardiac arrest, including the impact of readmission, regional differences and the effects of early initiated CPR.

The difficult choice between resuscitation and letting go

Coming back to lifeWhen I was a toddler, I choked on a boiled sweet. I became silent and turned purple. My quick-thinking mother (a carer for children with learning disabilities) picked me up by my feet, sharply slapped my back, and the sweet came flying out. I was one of the lucky ones and didn't need CPR; 2-year-old Francis Dean choked to death on a hard-boiled lollipop (Bunyan, 2009). In fact, 5051 people died from choking in 2015 (National Safety Council, 2017). When someone is choking, the...

Ocular management for CS gas exposure: exploring treatment in the pre-hospital setting

Problem: The use of CS gas has increased dramatically in recent years yet how to implement optimal management is still a matter of debate. A lack of a sandardised approach to care has left a vacuum in which various treatments have been proposed, some with no evidence base. Whilst some of these treatments may simply not work, others will increase the pain and time taken to recover. Approach: This paper looks, specifically at the ocular management of exposure to CS gas as the eyes are often the...

Development of clinical and inter-personal skills to support people living with dementia

There is a lack of understanding on how paramedic students develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes to support people living with dementia and their families. This original qualitative study applied focus groups to explore paramedic students' perspectives. First and third year paramedic students were recruited from two ambulance service providers in the South of England. Data were collected during January and February 2017 and three themes emerged: 1) challenges of communication 2)...

Compassionate yet detached

The UK capital was recently struck by a heinous terror attack. As the nation watched the events unfold on TV, authorities and citizens were most impressed with the speed and efficiency of police and the paramedics. The Ambulance Service declared the attack as a ‘major incident’. Social media was flooded with comments regarding what this meant, as it was already obvious for the whole nation that the attack was a ‘major incident’.

The satellite security blind spot: what it means for paramedics on the frontline

Over the course of the next 3 years, the UK's emergency services will be switching over to state-of-the-art handset and vehicle-mounted communication devices, operating on a private 4G network. Part of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP), this new equipment can provide increased resilience and security across all communication channels and navigation devices used by frontline emergency services in the UK. In addition, new services and applications will be launched,...

Show me the evidence! Engaging with science in the pre-hospital environment

Scientific insightAs a natural consequence of increased demand for clinical excellence and improved outcomes for patients, there is a related increase in demand for sound academic foundations for pre-hospital treatment. While current guidelines are based on best available evidence, there is a desire to fill gaps in knowledge through further investigation including during clinical trials.Paramedics should be encouraged to engage with the concept of evidence-based practice, and challenge the...

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