The Australasian College of Paramedicine

Host:  David Long
Guests: Belinda Delardes and Brendan Shannon

About this episode:
In this episode of The Debrief, host David unpacks community paramedicine and paramedic-initiated GP referrals with Monash University PhD candidates Belinda Delardes and Brendan Shannon. Both Belinda and Brendan are registered paramedics working for a jurisdictional Australian Ambulance Service and bring a contemporary view of managing patients who are suitable for an alternate (non-ED) pathway. The wide-ranging discussion touches on the philosophy underpinning service delivery to lower acuity patients, the difference between “non-transport” and “transition of care”, as well as challenging the established paradigms of paramedic education.

About David:
David Long is a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead of the Paramedicine program at the University of Southern Queensland. David began his career in paramedicine with a state Ambulance service in 1998 and was part of an inaugural Extended Care Paramedic program. He completed a doctorate in 2017 that examined the work role transition of qualified paramedics to a specialist role in community paramedicine. David continues to have a wide range of research interests in paramedicine and education.

About Belinda:
Belinda is an ALS paramedic and clinical instructor with Ambulance Victoria (AV). Following her graduate year with AV, she undertook an Honours degree part-time with Monash University focusing on a potential e-handover between paramedics and GPs. After achieving the Monash Department of Paramedicine 2019 Academic Excellence in Research Award for this, Belinda continued on with a PhD to improve the referral process from paramedics to GPs in Victoria, Australia. Belinda is a passionate advocate for improving efficiency and patient safety for non-transported patients.   

About Brendan:
Brendan is a lecturer within the Department of Paramedicine at Monash University and a registered paramedic with Ambulance Victoria (AV) for the past 9 years. He has experience in curriculum development, continuing professional development, clinical instruction, and supervision of honours students’ projects, on top of his clinical and academic workload. 

Brendan returned as a student part-time with the Paramedicine department in 2015 after focusing solely on his clinical role as a paramedic by enrolling in the honours program. After successfully completing the course with H1 honours he enrolled as a PhD candidate. His thesis is investigating the impact of a community care program that aims to divert unnecessary ambulance and ED presentations in a large metropolitan region of Melbourne. Brendan has a keen interest in health services research, alternative care pathways, non-transport, referral services, and community paramedicine. 

Host: Sam Willis
Guest: Attiqur Rehman

About this episode:
Ambulance personnel routinely work alongside other emergency services, and while this relationship is deemed essential to providing safe clinical care, the value and processes for achieving an effective cross-disciplinary role can sometimes be an afterthought.  In this student podcast, we shine a light on this important topic and provide an autoethnographic self-reflection from a student paramedic perspective on challenges, frustrations and the future, and we propose a framework to help practitioners prepare for such a situation.

About Sam:
Sam is the Discipline Lead for paramedicine at Curtin University and has a passion for all things paramedic education.  He worked as a paramedic and lecturer in London and Oxford, in the United Kingdom, prior to coming to Australia to further his career in paramedic education.  His current doctoral studies explore the use of virtual reality communities of practice for supporting student paramedics as they undertake Work Integrated Learning (WIL). 

About Attiqur:
Attiqur is a final year student paramedic at Curtin University in Western Australia. Prior to this, he was a first responder in multiple jurisdictions for 15 years through his roles as a police officer in both the United Kingdom and Australia, along with working in a mental health triage team. 

Hosts:  Lisa Hobbs and Andy Bell
Guests: Prue Snedden and Rachel Kluck

About this episode:
Debrief hosts Lisa and Andy get an opportunity to have an open and honest conversation with Paramedics Rachel and Prue. The discussion covers a diverse range of topics from barriers of entry to the profession, the importance of strong role models in professional development and challenges for the profession moving forward. The participation of Rachel, Prue and Lisa provides a fantastic window into comparisons and contrasts, from three women who have achieved and continue to achieve great things in the world of Paramedicine. 

About Lisa: 

Lisa Hobbs is a registered paramedic and lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of Southern Queensland. From 2000-2018, Lisa has worked in various roles within the Queensland Ambulance Service, including advanced care paramedic, officer in charge, emergency medical dispatcher and senior clinical educator. In 2014, she began teaching undergraduate paramedic students at university, before moving full-time into the tertiary sector. She has extensive experience as unit coordinator and course examiner of paramedic clinical and placement subjects at several Australian universities. Her research interests include paramedic education, paramedic continuing professional development, paramedic mental health, paramedic resilience, building employability in undergraduate paramedic students, building resilience in undergraduate paramedic students and disaster management. Lisa’s qualifications include Bachelor of Science (Psychology), Diploma Paramedical Science (Ambulance), Graduate Certificate Clinical Education, Graduate Diploma Health Management/Disaster Management, Master of Philosophy (Paramedicine), MACP, MANZMH and FHEA. 

About Andy: 

Andy is currently a lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of Southern Queensland where he has been for the past three years. Prior to USQ he was lecturing at ACU (Brisbane) for four years. He has 14 years of experience with QAS. Prior to QAS, he taught search and rescue in New Zealand. He is a confirmed PhD Candidate with a particular interest in the evolution of the professional paramedic education paradigm and improving the performance of operators in high threat environments. 

About Prue: 

Prue is a Critical Care Flight Paramedic who began her career in paramedicine 16 years ago as a QAS First Responder on Moreton Island. After some adventures overseas she returned to study the first degree in Paramedics offered in Queensland. From that point on, Prue has never looked back; she has found a deep passion for the care of patients in the prehospital environment.  Currently, Prue flies out of the Archerfield airbase on Rescue 500 but has spent time on the QAS HARU and worked in multiple different areas across QLD including Ipswich, Townsville and Rockhampton. 
 
Prue describes the best part of the job is being in a team that delivers excellence in patient care, and supports and protects each other. Prue believes that through this, we can grow the professional standing of paramedics among the medical community and continue to make work a great place to be. 

About Rachel: 

Rachel is an ACP from Brisbane, where she has worked with the Queensland Ambulance Service since 2016. During that time, she also lectured in Paramedicine at the University of Southern Queensland and has served as a volunteer paramedic with Ambulance Wish Queensland since their inception in 2019. Rachel has special interests in paramedic mentorship and research, and is a recent recipient of a KJ McPherson Education and Research Foundation grant for investigation of regional anaesthesia in paramedicine. 

Host: Sandy MacQuarrie
Guest: Rebekah Spratt

About this episode:
Sandy and Rebekah take some time to discuss the art of being a paramedic. Rebekah shares wisdom and thoughts drawn from a rich and rewarding career as a paramedic in Canada.

About Sandy:
Sandy is a Senior Lecturer in the Paramedicine program at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, Australia. He has had a long and rewarding career as a paramedic in Canada and now in Australia.
Twitter: @justaguy_inOz

About Rebekah:
Rebekah has been a paramedic since 1998, currently working at the Advanced Care level in Ottawa, Canada. Rebekah has made it her mission to change the culture of paramedicine for the better, one kind act at a time.
Twitter: @medibrat

Host: Andy Bell and Matt Pepper
Guest: Oliver Hamlet

About this episode:
In this episode, hosts Andy and Matt have a conversation with Human Factors researcher and Applied Psychologist Oliver Hamlet.  The discussion is an extension of Andy and Matt’s previous conversation regarding operational cognitive readiness and develops the concept in more detail.  Oliver brings a new perspective to the conversation as he has worked extensively with Helicopter Rescue Pilots and Paramedics in Scotland and has developed a quality human factors assessment and training system known as HeliNOTS.  The discussion covers areas such as, Non-Technical Skills, limitations and barriers to previous research and the impact of lifestyle factors on operator readiness. 

HeliNOTs Human Factors Framework by Oliver Hamlet

About Andy:
Andy is currently a lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of Southern Queensland where he has been for the past three years. Prior to USQ he was lecturing at ACU (Brisbane) for four years. He has 14 years’ experience with QAS.  Prior to QAS he taught search and rescue in New Zealand. He is a confirmed PhD Candidate with a particular interest in the evolution of the professional paramedic education paradigm and improving performance of operators in high threat environments.

About Matt:
Matt is an ICP and tactical medical specialist with NSWA.  He is the chairperson of the Australian Tactical Medical Association and the training development manager for TacMed Australia.  He has a wealth of information on tactical medicine and improving triage in high threat environments.  He is currently working with a group of researchers looking at a concept called operational cognitive readiness (OCR), which aims to improve quality of decision making and stress inoculation of operators in high stress environments such as paramedicine.
 
About Oliver:
Dr Oliver Hamlet is a researcher in the Applied Psychology and Human Factors Group from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.  He recently completed his PhD developing a Human Factors assessment and training tool for Helicopter Rescue Teams and is the founder of the Axiom Human Factors consultancy.

Host: Dr Lisa Clegg

Guests: Matthew Warren-James and Professor Helen Stallman

About this episode:
Paramedicine practice has inherent uncertainty, exposure to trauma, and challenging situations.  What we don’t know is how paramedics cope with all of this.

This podcast discusses coping and introduces a new international research project that is the first of its kind to investigate the wellbeing of paramedics with the individual coping strategies in stressful situations.    

 Related Links

1. Wellbeing of Paramedics (WoP) 2021 Study Link 
2. Wellbeing of Paramedics (WoP) 2021 Study Information Video 
3. Grad Cert 
4. My Coping Plan app  
5. Care Collaborate Connect: Suicide Prevention training 

Biographies:
Please Click Here to find out more about Dr Lisa Clegg
Please Click Here to find out more about Matthew Warren-James
Please Click Here to find out more about Professor Helen Stallman

Host: Andy Bell
Guest: Matt Pepper

About this episode:
Working effectively in high threat, high acuity, time critical environments requires quality decision making and stress management.  Recent developments in this area have seen a shift in research focus from traditional military occupations to the broader field of high acuity operators in the public sphere.  This is a rapidly evolving area of research and Andy and Matt discuss it all! They also touch on triage and how the old paradigm is being challenged, and whether it should be deconstructed and reinvented, as well as how training can be used to overcome stress response. Throughout, Andy and Matt introduce the theory of Occupational Cognitive Readiness (OCR) and how it could be related to paramedicine.

This chat that could have gone on for a lot longer so we have lined up a follow on episode where Andy and Matt will be joined all the way from the UK by OCR researcher Oliver Hamlet, whose work is briefly touched on in this episode. If you have any questions for Andy, Matt and Oliver for the next episode around OCR please send them through to [email protected] or through our social channels Instagram: acparamedicine Facebook: Australasian College of Paramedicine. This episode will be recorded on June 30.

 About Andy:
He is currently a lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of Southern Queensland where he has been for the past three years. 
Prior to USQ he was lecturing at ACU (Brisbane) for four years. 
He has 14 years’ experience with QAS. 
Prior to QAS he taught search and rescue in New Zealand  
He is a confirmed PhD Candidate with a particular interest in the evolution of the professional paramedic education paradigm and improving performance of operators in high threat environments. 

 About Matt:
Matt is an ICP and tactical medical specialist with NSWA.  He is the chairperson of the Australian Tactical Medical Association and the training development manager for TacMed Australia.  He has a wealth of information on tactical medicine and improving triage in high threat environments.  He is currently working with a group of researchers looking at a concept called operational cognitive readiness (OCR), which aims to improve quality of decision making and stress inoculation of operators in high stress environments such as paramedicine.  I believe Matt will make an excellent addition to the podcast library and the topics being considered include:  

- Stress response to high acuity environments

- Stress and its impact on decision making and skill application

- Triage (challenging the old paradigm)

- Training to overcome stress responses

- Operational Cognitive Readiness as a concept and how it relates to paramedicine

Rural Outback and Remote Paramedic Conference (ROAR) 2021

The Rural Outback and Remote Paramedic Conference is designed specifically for paramedics and allied health professionals working in rural, outback and remote locations.

Panel Discussion -  Developing roles of paramedics in Australia and New Zealand; How do we best incorporate non-traditional paramedic roles into health care delivery? 

 
Facilitator: Alecka Miles, Course Coordinator, Graduate Diploma / Graduate Certificate Extended Care Paramedicine & Masters Paramedic Practitioner, School of Medical and Health Science, Edith Cowan University 

Panel Members:  

Dave Anderson, Extended Care Paramedic, St John, Post Graduate Lecturer, Paramedicine - Auckland University of Technology  

Amy McCaffrey, Paramedic, Northern Territory 

David McLeod, Executive Manager - Primary Health & Community 

Rural Outback and Remote Paramedic Conference (ROAR) 2021

The Rural Outback and Remote Paramedic Conference is designed specifically for paramedics and allied health professionals working in rural, outback and remote locations.

Panel Discussion– It's 2031; What are paramedics doing now? 

Facilitator: Sunny Whitfield, Lecturer - Griffith University School of Medicine (Paramedicine) 

Panel Members:  

Mitch Mullooly, Member Committee Chair, Aotearoa New Zealand 

Krista Reed, Paramedic, Sessional Academic and Research Officer 

Nicole Foster, Training and Development, Citadel Medical 

Carlton Irving, Flight ICP / Chair - Paramedic Council of New Zealand (Chair Te Kaunihera Manapou 

Host: Sherlyn Hii
Guests: Jessica Metcalf | To view Jessica’s bio CLICK HERE
                  Andy Booth | To view Andy’s bio CLICK HERE

About this episode:
Going back to study as a mature age student can be nerve-wracking. You may have walked away from a prosperous career in favour of humble student life. Meanwhile, you are expected to juggle study with financial and family commitments. Despite this, there are many benefits to starting a paramedicine degree once you’ve got some life experience under your belt. The journey to becoming a registered paramedic is not easy, but fortune favours the bold. This month, two mature-age students will have a life-affirming conversation about what taking that leap of faith has meant for them.