Consultant Editors Lynda Sibson, Ian Peate, Pete Gregory Editor Aysha Mendes jpp@markallengroup.com Commercial Manager Frankie Bramble frankie.bramble@markallengroup.com Group Classified Manager Daniel Doherty julia.stevens@markallengroup.com Production Manager Kyri Apostolou Production Assistant Jamie Hodgskin Content Development Director Tom Pollard Editorial Director Sophie Gardner Managing Director Anthony Kerr anthony.kerr@markallengroup.com Associate Publisher Mike Shallcross Publisher Anthony Kerr Chief Executive Officer Ben Allen
Editorial Board Guillaume Alinier Director of Research, Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service, Doha, Qatar; Professor, Simulation in Healthcare Education, University of Hertfordshire, UK Ayesha Bal Paramedic, West Midlands Ambulance Service Trust, UK Aidan Baron Extended Care Paramedic and Clinical Lead, Community Health Support NSW, Australia; Visiting Researcher in Urgent and Emergency Health Care and Workforce Research, Kingston University London, UK Tony Bleetman Consultant in Emergency Medicine; Honorary Associate Professor, University of Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK Malcolm Boyle Associate Professor and Academic Lead in Paramedic Education, Program Director Paramedicine Programs Griffith University, Australia Dr Mike Brooke Doctor and Advanced Paramedic, Tameside Hospital NHS Trust/North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust UK Tanoh Asamoah-Danso Paramedic, East of England Ambulance Service Trust, UK David Davis Clinical Lead, Integrated Urgent Care Workforce Development Programme, NHS England; Fellow and Mental Health Spokesperson, College of Paramedics; Founding Fellow, Faculty of Clinical Informatics, UK John Donaghy Senior Lecturer, Paramedic Science, Anglia Ruskin University, UK Georgette Eaton Clinical Practice Development Manager, Advanced Paramedic Practitioners (Urgent Care), London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, UK Kerry Gaskin Principle Lecturer, Advancing Clinical Practice; Academic Lead, CPD and Paramedic Science, Allied Health and Social Sciences Academic Unit, University of Worcester, UK Pete Gregory Head of Allied Health Professions, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK Sigurd Haveland Paramedic and Divisional Clinical Lead, Primary Care and Emergency Services, Gibraltar Health Athority Andrew Kirk Assistant Director for Education and Organisational Development,
East Midlands Ambulance Trust, UK Joanne Mildenhall Paramedic Team Leader, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust, UK Dr Tom Mallinson Prehospital Doctor, BASICS Scotland, UK Ian Mursell Consultant Paramedic, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, UK Ian Peate Viiting Profesor, Northmbria University, UK John Renshaw Senior Lecturer in Paramedic Science, Wolverhampton University, UK Alan Rice Associate Professor, Paramedic Practice, Department of Paramedic Science, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, UK Lynda Sibson Telemedicine Manager, East of England Stroke Telemedicine Service, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK Ceri Sudron Senior Lecturer and Paramedic Science Course Lead, University of Wolverhampton, UK Kacper Sumera Deputy Head of Education, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK Sammer Tang Public Health Registrar, Gloucestershire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK James Taylor Project Manager, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Carl Webster Senior Lecturer and Paramedic Science Course Lead, University of Wolverhampton, UK Mark Woolcock Consultant Paramedic; Lead Clinician, Cornwall Health Out-of-Hours Aimee Yarrington FCPara, Clinical Team Mentor and Midwife, West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS University Foundation Trust, Shropshire, UK
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EditorialEditorial
So, what’s next?
Paramedicine and prehospital scholarship show an increasingly impressive ability to appropriately engage in reflexive and reflective processes. The work of paramedics is arguably understudied (Wankhade et al, 2021), widely misunderstood (Eaton, 2019; McCann, 2022) and complex (Eaton et al, 2018), with a professional identity instability instilled by paramedic, public and policy alike (McCann, 2022). A profession that has traditionally—in the eyes of many within the medical community—played a subsidiary role alongside the dominance of the doctornurse game (Stein, 1967), is increasingly positioning itself as a key player within the post-COVID NHS recovery and future ambitions of contemporary clinical care.
Therefore, when reading a recent randomised control trial looking into CPR quality by Sumera et al (2024), it was disheartening to read within the introduction that there remains evidence that CPR quality among EMS providers—arguably a publicly perceived staple of the professional role—may be substandard. What this article achieved, however, aside from offering a seminal contribution surrounding the role of a ‘CPR Quality Officer’, was to show just what can be achieved when paramedicled research effectively tackles a challenge within clinical practice, using not only a paramedic perspective, but also a multicentre international cohort of student paramedics to partake in the trial. Furthermore, their innovative use of simulation has highlighted the potential possibilities of paramedic scholarship in redefining its role in optimising clinical practice that is both achievable and professionally empowering. While NHS ambulance services continue to be involved with highly impactful studies, there will always be emerging questions about the professional role, scope, identity, and performance of paramedics, not least their future. As paramedicine experiences continuous and arguably unsustainable professional development, driven by unpredictable sociopolitical demand and operating amid an NHS facing a multifaceted acute-on-chronic perma-crisis, the need for professional reflexivity and academic empowerment is both immediate and profound.
Sumera et al (2024) is interesting for the consideration of a very simple academic review process; the question of, ‘so what?’. This simple provocative inquiry has the potential to divide opinion and influence the next academic or operational contribution. It highlights what we can achieved while showing our willingness to lead in the criticality of our own performance. While this paper will likely see an operational impact in cardiac arrest management, the reader must shine a critical lens, asking not only ‘so what?’ but also, crucially, ‘what’s next?’.
This editorial challenges readers to determine the next challenge to be tackled by the profession: unchartered clinical territories ready to be explored or wider clinical contributions to be made. Paramedicine is no longer a subsidiary of the wider system. Therefore, we must continue to establish our presence and define our future, which can only be done by empowerment of our role, scope and identity through academic contributions and falsification of our own assumed fundamentals. JPP
Eaton G. Paramedic. Noun. Br Para J. 2019;4(2):1–3. https://doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2019.09.4.2.1 Eaton G, Mahtani K, Catterall M. The evolving role of paramedics – a NICE problem to have? J Health Serv
Res Policy. 2018;23(3):193–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1355819618768357 McCann L. The paramedic at work: a sociology of a new profession. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2022 Stein LI. The doctor-nurse game. Arch Gen Psychiatr. 1967;16(6):699–703. https://doi.org/10.1001/
archpsyc.1967.01730240055009 Sumera K, Ilczak T, Bakkerud M et al. CPR Quality Officer role to improve CPR quality: A multi-centred international simulation randomised control trial. Resuscitation Plus. 2024;17:100537. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.resplu.2023.100537 Wankhade P, McCann L, Murphy P. Critical perspectives on the management and organization of emergency services (1st edn). CITY: Routledge; 2021
Jamie Hahn is Doctoral Researcher at Nottingham Trent University, UK.
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