Student Paramedic Research at Fanshawe College

Abstracts from several student-led research studies currently ongoing in the Primary Care Paramedic Program at Fanshawe College are detailed below. These projects are presented at the annual Paramedic Programs Research Day, and several of these projects were also presented at the Fanshawe College Research and Innovation Day held in April

Zika Virus: What Paramedics Need to Know

Zika Virus Disease (ZVD) is a viral illness spread primarily through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitos. This review will provide a brief overview of the history of ZVD, epidemiology, prevention, clinical presentation, management and complications to help better prepare the paramedic for potential encounters with patients with ZVD

#FOAMems: Engaging paramedics with free, online open-access education

Background and aim: Twitter use among paramedics and other prehospital care clinicians is on the rise and is increasingly being used as a platform for continuing education and international collaboration. In 2014, the hashtag #FOAMems was registered. It is used for the sharing of emergency medical services, paramedicine, and prehospital care-related content. It is a component of the \u27free open-access meducation\u27 (FOAM) movement. The aim of this study was to characterize and evaluate the content of #FOAMems tweets since registration. Materials and methods: An analytical report for #FOAMems was generated on symplur.com from February 4, 2014, to April 30, 2017. A transcript of all #FOAMems tweets for a randomly selected 1 month period (October 2015) was generated, and quantitative content analysis was performed by two reviewers. Tweets were categorized according to source (original tweet/retweet) and whether referenced. The top 92 tweeters were analyzed for professional identity. Results: During the study period, there were over 99,000 tweets containing #FOAMems, by over 9,200 participants. These resulted in almost 144 million impressions. Of the top 92 tweeters, 50 were paramedics (54%). Tweets were mainly related to cardiac (23%), leadership (19%), and trauma (14%). The 1-month period resulted in 649 original tweets, with 2110 retweets, 1070 of these were referenced. Conclusion: Paramedics are engaging with both clinical and nonclinical content on Twitter using #FOAMems. Social media resources are widely shared, which is in line with the FOAM movement\u27s philosophy. However, opportunities exist for paramedics to share further diverse resources supported by referenced material

Navigating Pre-Hospital End of Life Care: A Paramedic Perspective

End of life care (EoLC) issues in the Canadian healthcare system are now commonplace. Palliative care and medical assistance in dying (MAID) programs are giving patients more options than ever before. Consequently, pre-hospital and community paramedicine programs now interact with more patients who require EoLC

Canadian Paramedic program Use of Realistic Simulation in Education (PURSE): a descriptive study.

Background: Literature suggests that simulation-based learning is an important modality in medical education. Although there is a large body of evidence in other medical fields, there has been little reported evidence of simulation use in paramedic education. This study aimed to report patterns of simulation use in paramedic programs across Canada. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of Primary Care and Advanced Care paramedic programs across Canada. An online questionnaire was distribution to all identified paramedic program coordinators in Canada. Results: Of the 44 invitations sent, 20 complete responses (45%) were received and analyzed. Paramedic programs reported they own or have access to a wide range of simulation resources. The majority of programs (85%) agreed that simulation directly impacted patient care but only 60% trained faculty on how to design and facilitate simulation. Only 3 programs (15%) reported using simulation as a supplement or to augment training, typically skill-based clinical hours. Standardized patients are underused in simulation. Typical barriers reported to simulation implementation were cost, time, and availability of resources. Conclusion: Simulation based learning has become an important aspect of multiple health care professions. As the paramedic profession continues to develop, it is important that initial paramedic education incorporates simulation effectively. Faculty education surrounding inexpensive and effective ways to incorporate simulation will likely increase use of simulation in paramedic programs. Future research should investigate how simulation in paramedic education impacts patient outcomes

When Ambulances Crash

Transporting patients to hospitals in a safe manner is a core aspect of paramedic practice within Canada. The majority of these transports are within a ground ambulance on city streets and provincial roadways. There is however an inherent danger associated with the operation of emergency vehicles

An Introduction to Reflective Practice for Paramedics and Student Paramedics

Reflective practice is an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where individuals learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer. It is an important process in continuous professional competency and development

Empathy in paramedic practice: an overview

Background: Although inconsistently defined, empathy is generally considered to be the understanding of another person\u27s reactions, thoughts, feelings and problems and being able to relay this sense of understanding back to the individual. Empathy in healthcare is associated with improved communication, reduced stress, lower complication rates and improved clinical outcomes. Low empathy is associated with decreased patient satisfaction, and provider burnout. Aim: The aim of this article is to provide an overview of empathy in paramedic practice, and to outline several potential solutions to improve empathy levels among paramedics and paramedic students. Methods: We conducted unstructured, non-systematic searches of the literature in order to inform an overview of the literature. An overview is a summary of the literature that attempts to survey the literature and describe its characteristics. We thematically structured the results of these searches under the following headings: empathy in paramedic practice, empathy and burnout, and strategies to improve empathy levels. Discussion: The literature demonstrates that paramedic students have lower empathy scores towards substance users and mental health emergencies, and this may affect future practice as a paramedic. The burden of emotional work in paramedic practice and coping strategies that paramedics develop may also be contributory factors in this lower empathy. There appears to be a relationship between empathy and burnout, with most studies suggesting an inverse relationship. Empathy is an interpersonal skill that can be learned and improved upon through methods such as reflection and simulation. Conclusion: Empathy in paramedic practice is complex, and understudied. Although some evidence exists to suggest that paramedic students have variable empathy levels towards certain patients, and that these empathy scores can decline over time, there is a distinct lack of research into empathy in practicing paramedics, and this requires further attention. In particular, its relationship to patient care, paramedic burnout, and wellbeing require investigation. Several strategies to teach empathy exist and these can be considered by educators

Welcome to the Irish Journal of Paramedicine

Welcome to the first issue of the Irish Journal of Paramedicine (IJP). It gives me great pleasure to launch this journal, a first for Irish paramedics, and pre-hospital care in Ireland. I am also honoured to announce that the IJP has been adopted as the official journal of the Irish College of Paramedics, the professional body for prehospital emergency care practitioners in Ireland.              A newly emerging profession, paramedicine is now poised at  a crossroads. Previously alluded to with  colleagues from around the globe, the role of the paramedic is one that is rapidly evolving, and yet paramedicine as a discipline has yet to figure out where it belongs.(1) Are we public safety professionals, first responders or healthcare professionals? Williams has previously stated that the road less travelled requires the paramedic profession to pursue identity as a healthcare profession and not as emergency responders, EMS workers, or ambulance drivers, which we are so commonly identified as.(2)Initiatives within Ireland such as the Centre for Prehospital Research national research agenda, the move to higher education for paramedics in University College Dublin and the University of Limerick, and the publication of high-quality peer-reviewed research, undertaken for paramedics, led by paramedics, and published in paramedicine journals are key components in this pursuit of professionalism. It is our hope that the Irish Journal of Paramedicine will play its part as a vehicle in this endeavour.It is important however to point out that the Irish Journal of Paramedicine is not exclusively for paramedics. Within Ireland, and around the world, there are many other prehospital care providers, including community responders, volunteer first responders, EMT practitioners, nurses, physicians and others who deliver high quality patient care and are as committed to their personal and professional development as any paramedic. This journal is for the entire prehospital care community, within Ireland and abroad.On behalf of the editorial board and the executive of the Irish College of Paramedics, I would like to outline our vision for this journal. We aim to deliver a high quality, freely accessible, peer-reviewed journal that will help to further the professionalisation of paramedicine and prehospital care provision both in Ireland and internationally.Our aim is to provide you with access to research, reviews, appraisals, clinical updates, case reports and opinions that will help you to provide the best quality service – whether you are a student, clinician, educator, manager or researcher. We aim to present a wide range of topics relating to clinical practice, professional issues, role development, education and training, policy and service delivery, thereby representing all aspects of paramedicine and prehospital care.Our editorial board consists of respected academics, researchers, clinicians and educators from Ireland and abroad who are committed to furthering the cause of paramedicine, and encouraging its future development of professional standing. I am indebted to them for the time they gave so freely in helping to establish this journal.We strongly encourage you to submit articles, reports, letters and other contributions to the journal. It is also our vision to publish abstracts of research activity undertaken by Irish prehospital care providers and practitioners, which has been presented at various conferences and scientific meetings, such as the EMS Gathering, and Irish College of Paramedics Scientific Days to name but two.Remember this is your journal and it will be as successful as you want it to be. This journal has been a long time in the making, and we look forward to helping it to develop into a true academic and clinical resource along with your assistance. Thank you.Alan M. BattEditor Source of support/funding: None.Conflict of interest: AB is Editor of the IJP.Provenance and review: Commissioned, not peer-reviewed.References1. Morton J, Kloepping K, Buick J, Todd J, Batt A. The evolution of the paramedic. Can Paramed. 2015;38(5).2. Williams B, Onsman A, Brown T. Is the Australian Paramedic Discipline a Full Profession ? J Emerg Prim Heal Care. 2010;8(1):3.How to cite this article: Batt AM. Welcome to the Irish Journal of Paramedicine (Editorial). Irish Journal of Paramedicine, 2016; 1(1).This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work and any attributes thereof are properly cited, are distributed under the same licence, and that the work is not used for commercial purposes. Content copyright remains with the authors, who grant the IJP a licence to reuse and distribute.

Let\u27s Make This Our Thing . Leveling the Playing Field for a Brighter Future in Paramedicine

The majority of paramedic services internationally are multifaceted with frontline paramedics, specialty teams, supervisors, educators, quality assurance, and senior management. Across these services, women have been found to be underrepresented in paramedicine in canada, and the estimated number of women that hold leadership positions is less than 5 percent. Since the data in this area is lacking in paramedicine, we must draw parallels from research performed in academic medicine, business, and the technology industries to gain insight into the ways that gender bias impacts career profession for women