Practice Development Report: Paramedic Factors and Healthcare Impact

This report delves into the multifaceted aspects of practice development within the healthcare sector, focusing on the critical role of paramedics and the application of evidence-based practices. It begins with an introduction to practice development, emphasizing its systematic approach to improving healthcare outcomes, and then explores the PICO framework (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) as a tool for evidence-based decision-making, particularly in the context of paramedic interventions. The report investigates the impact of paramedic competencies, comparing them to ED nurses and examining their influence on patient outcomes. Further, it discusses clinical practice guidelines, highlighting their importance in ensuring consistent and effective patient care, and addresses the ethical considerations and practical applications of these guidelines, including the handling of vulnerable patients. The report also touches upon the limitations faced by paramedics and concludes by emphasizing the importance of evidence-based practice in healthcare.

PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC :- ..........................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PICO and the search for evidence....................................................................................................1
PRACTICE GUIDELINES.............................................................................................................4
Reliability of Paramedics interpretation......................................................................................5
MANIPULATING THE EVIDENCE.............................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

TOPIC :-
“Understanding the influence of maximized rate of paramedic factors on other
departments of the health care involving their interaction with the patients.”
INTRODUCTION
Practice development is the systematic approach that has aim to practitioners and
healthcare teams as well. It also assists to identify that how it can be improved to develop
effective workplace culture (Ruston and Tavabie, 2011). It is also embedded in the person
centred processes, system and ways in which work will be done. In recent years, concept of
heath care service continuously adapting and improving to meet with the service users needs. It
defining the standards of practice, implementing evidence based practices at workplace. It is also
distinct form with other change management activities which defined in the more practice terms.
It is also systematic approach which focus on the improvement of patient care. There are
several incorporate range of approaches that underpinned by the development and active
engagement of the practitioners. It is evolutionary that help to find relevant information towards
the health care services. As it is also focuses on the patients needs and practice development that
make successful results to work directly with patients. Integrated technical and theoretical
evidence also create more values in the practice environment. The present report covers practice
guidelines and manipulating of the evidence in health care sector.
PICO and the search for evidence
Decision making is considered as a very important approach that can actually help in
reaching out at better conclusions and outcomes that can help in making the whole process more
effective and appropriate. This can be here analysed by making use of the PICO format in which
P stands for population, I stand for intervention, C stands for comparison and O stands for the
outcome. So, it can help in answering the few basic questions. Paramedics are individuals with
specialised qualities that helps in providing efficient services of treatment and procedures to the
person that has been seriously ill and admitted. There are various factors that gives priority to the
Paramedics and these include facts that they have been provided with an efficient range of
practices and procedures that are capable enough of handling and dealing with different complex
situations. It is because in a health care, various different types of people are being admitted as
some vulnerable cases etc. So, for properly dealing with them, it is very important to behave
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properly, patiently and with proper respect to them because any sort of ill behaviour can affect
their mental health so badly. Also, it is obvious that when a person is being admitted in such an
environment, their mind status changes because the environment is quite different from the outer
surroundings and also, the person has to do as per the authorities and paramedics of the health
care. So, it somewhere effects the mind of the person. So, in such an environment, it is very
important that a paramedic should deal with love and support so that the patient can also feel
able enough to share their own ideas and views with the paramedic. It will further result in an
effective communication between the both which will help in easing the whole process. Now the
question here is that “Does increased rate of competencies of paramedics are reducing the
demand of ED nurses and modified patient outcomes?”. This can be well analysed by the means
of PICO format.
The PICO of the specified question “Does increased rate of competencies of
paramedics are reducing the demand of ED nurses and modified patient outcomes?” is
given as below :
Population Anyone with the age of 1-2 years or more with
some major or immediate illness.
Interventions Paramedic practitioner and specialists. The
first step of providing better intervention is the
availability of the paramedic practitioner at the
time of some immediate injury or accident.
After that the processing starts (Martin, 2015).
Comparison Paramedics with enhanced set of competencies
can be compared with a few ones with some
standard and basic achievements and
competencies.
Outcomes The outcomes can be referred here is a better
and efficient quality of life. It also results in a
more number of admissions rate in the hospital
along with a better satisfaction rate of the staff.
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There are enormous number of paramedics available for providing an immediate help to
the immediate cases and accidents. Also, paramedics had a proper management and procedures
for various life threatening situations as well. It has been observed that there are various
maximum number of evidences provided which considers the fact that the number of people
accessing the services of ambulances seems capable enough of undergoing through the
assessment procedure (Hyysalo, 2010). Also, it has been observed that their survival rate is high
as well. But there comes situations when the paramedics also have to come to save various life
threatening conditions. One question that arises here also is that are these paramedics with
enhanced competencies are a sort of threat to the ED nurses. It is because this has some influence
on the operations and services of the emergency department nurses. It has influenced the change
because it is obvious enough that these paramedics are trained under specialised set of learning
and training that can actually make it possible to save someone from life threatening conditions.
These are known for providing very rapid sort of responses and assessment for anyone suffering
or in need.
Unlike the emergency department nurses who tends to provide medical services and
treatments only in the inside of the ward, the paramedics are free of such barriers and are known
to provide equal attention and support outside the wards and hospital as well. This makes a wide
comparison between the emergency department nurses and the paramedics. Thus, paramedics
have been given more attention than these nurses. Thus, it is clear enough that the increasing
demand of paramedics can act as a threat for the emergency department nurses and also for their
modifications of providing better patient outcomes (Blaber and Harris, 2014). They also have to
undergo various competencies as they undergo enormous physical tasks. Also, their capability is
being checked whether they can be able to deal the vulnerable groups or not, whether they can
act capable enough of making fast and efficient results etc. after so much of factors, their
criminal history is checked. Paramedics also have to go through a lot of hardships to reach at this
point and this makes it quite challenging for the paramedics with basic and standard
competencies. There can be considered some factors also that can act as limitations and these are
discussed as under :
 A limited range of clinical equipments.
 A limited range of medications available as per the protocol assistance.
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 A limited set of autonomy can also act as a barrier or challenging feature for paramedics
and can make interferences in the overall processing of the operations.
PRACTICE GUIDELINES
There are some clinical recommendations that are necessary for every practitioner
including the paramedics as well. So, clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are considered as a set
of guidelines that helps in providing the patients a better and efficient clinical judgement. It is the
responsibility of the practitioner to make decisions about the assessment of patient and an overall
clinical impression. It is obvious that the practitioner or paramedic have to deal with almost
people of every category, i.e. whether they can be infants, neonate's, adult or a child. So, the
paramedic should consider the fact that they there should be a proper way to deal with the
patients. It should be respectful and in a way that might not hurt the sentiments of the person.
Also, there should be no sort of discrimination with the patients, no matter what (O'Meara,
2014). As per the Equality Act 2010, it considers the fact that there should be no sort of
discrimination, whether it is about the colour, race or gender, it is not allowed at all in the health
care. It is important to maintain it because racism or discrimination can actually have a negative
influence on the mental stability of the person, making their condition worse and complicated.
The implementation of clinical practice guidelines helps in developing well efficient standards in
association with the range of medical emergencies. This is the reason, paramedics have been
trained in a way that they perform immediate support and treatment to the person in need. These
guidelines help in making the chain stronger that belongs to the survival rate of the person.
Also, it has been observed that the ones who resist an efficient time in the ambulance stay
capable of resisting the assessments, procedures and operations etc. in the ward or theatre. So,
paramedics are being given proper guidance about their role and way of behaving in different
situations. A very common example of this can be considered as the fact that there comes various
situations when the paramedic have to deal with a range of vulnerable people. The people are
categorised as vulnerable when they are because of various factors not able to take care of their
own and also unable to provide proper safety and protect themselves. This condition is referred
as being vulnerable. Also, the ones going under some sort of trauma are said to be vulnerable
enough that the practitioners may find it difficult to deal with them. In such cases, the
paramedics should ensure to stay normal and patient with them because any sort of harsh
behaviour can lead to affect their mental stability.
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There are various factors that are a part of the clinical practice guidelines and these
involve general tactical emergency care, first aid response, defibrillation procedures and policies
etc. and every factor has their own importance. All these factors are responsible for different
operations but the focus of each factor is only to make improvements in the objectives so that a
better range of effectiveness can be achieved in all the services and operations in the health care.
It also involves some care principles that act as the goals and are need to be followed by the
paramedics in order to achieve the objectives in an efficient and appropriate manner. These
principles include that the paramedics should ensure the fact that it is very important to maintain
the safety and security of patients along with of self because if the person itself will not be
capable enough of treating the patient, then it will automatically affect the mental and physical
condition of the patient (Williams, 2012). Also, it is essential to monitor the medications on a
regular basis so that it can be easier to check whether any modifications are required or not.
Investigating about different life threatening situations so that the paramedics can be able to
focus on them and on the basis of that can search for various method by which it can be resolved
at a higher extent.
Also, not forcing the patient to do something which they do not want to is an important
factor which is to be considered here. Also, it is the responsibility of the paramedic is to provide
proper care and support to the patient till the time they have not been allotted to some recognised
authority or practitioner. It is because till the person has not been handed over to someone, it is
considered under the responsibility of the paramedic only. The clinical practice guidelines also
includes the fact that it is very important to maintain the record status of each patient because it
can be further used in future treatments. Also, it includes all the past medical history of the
patient, so in future if any complication arises, the paramedic can take a look of it and grasp what
happened the person before and what treatment has been provided to the same. Providing proper
support and care to the person suffering along with their family comes also under the
responsibility of the paramedic. Peace, support and love can help in providing a managed and
stable balance between the mental and the physical well being of the person.
Reliability of Paramedics interpretation
The reliability of the interpretation of Paramedics can be analysed well by means of
various tools. A very common example of a tool that can help in the same is considered as the 5
point likert scale. It has been observed that the tool has been very widely used as it can help in
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getting more efficient and appropriate conclusions and outcomes. Also, using this rule helps in
managed factors because no factor of this makes the process complicated or complex. Thus, it
helps in going the whole process smooth enough. Although there have been some failures also
observed but even after a huge number of failures also, the process of modification did not stop
yet and the authorities at the health care make sure to implement it again with a modified set of
factors and operations. This in turn resulted much successful in achieving most of the targets and
goals in the health care (Campeau, 2015). In this tool named 5 point likert scale, there have been
included some responses that are already considered as the pre coded ones. Also, there is the
presence of a neutral point that has two options, agree or disagree. This five point scale is also
referred to as seven point scale in some cases and it helps in a way that the person can be
successfully able to answer what they think. It carries both the option, whether a person wants to
agree or not, it consists both these options. The tool works like this. A numerical value is being
assigned to every possible choice and then on the basis of that, a mean total is being calculated at
the end.
MANIPULATING THE EVIDENCE
The specified evidence for the fact that increasing number of paramedics competencies
are acting as factors that are decreasing the importance of emergency department nurses and the
operations. Now the fact to be ensure here is that what factors can manipulate the statement. So,
the manipulating factors can involve the maximized number of emergency department nurses.
Also, if the authorities at some health centres provides the patients 24*7 available services, then
in that case, there is a possibility that it can have some influence on the working and operations
of the paramedics (Orchard, 2010). Also, if the health care organisations employ more and more
nurses that can perform the responsibilities in various departments including the emergency
department as well, this can have an effect on the processing of the functions of the paramedics.
It is because there is a small difference between the guidelines for paramedics and for emergency
department nurses in the health care. Some highlighting factors involve that the paramedics are
being provided with specialised set of training to deal with people because sometimes, there are
some vulnerable cases as well that actually are very sensitive to deal with.
For dealing with such people, the paramedics are being provided with some specialised
range of features by means of which, the paramedics can ensure of dealing with them.
Maintaining proper respect in the communication is very important because disrespect or any
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sort of ill behaviour can directly have an influence on their mental stability. There also have
been observed that since the last ten years, a continuous increase in the rate of emergency calls
made for calling the ambulance. Therefore, a huge number of cases of people have been
increased due to which a maximization can be observed in the overall rate. Along with the
emergency numbers, there are some specialised numbers for the life threatening emergency as
well. As per the statistics, the overall rate of people who have called the life threatening agencies
were analysed as about 10% from the overall world. Although there have been a lot of support
provided by the government of UK and the Paramedic organisation in the UK so that a proper
structure can be provided to these paramedics so that they can be easily able to provide the
treatment and processes to the persons suffering from some immediate accident or injury
(Edwards, 2011).
The emergency nurses can take this as a competition when considering all the factors of
paramedics and the operations that are being provided by the same. So, the processes, services
and operations of emergency nurses can get affected. But it is important to ensure here that there
can be some involvements by the emergency nurses that can seem attractive enough and also act
as a competition for the paramedics. So, if modifications have been observed in a huge rate in
case of other practitioners and enrolled nurses, then it might affect somewhere the whole
processing of the paramedics and the operations and services being provided by them. The
emergency department nurses and the practitioners have to ensure the fact that they have to
undergo a specialised set of training and learning to be capable enough like that of the
paramedics because they are being learned to manage any type of situation and also their basic
responsibilities which also includes protecting the sentiments of the person, not disrespecting
them and make sure that no sort of racism or discrimination is taking place in the health care. It
is very important to maintain because these factors can have a huge impact on the mental
stability of the person and the role of the paramedics as well as emergency department nurses is
to ensure to keep the balance maintained. Although the laws and legislations prove equal for both
the paramedics and the emergency department nurses, it is very important to ensure that there
should be no sort of discrimination or racism in the health care, whether it is on the basis of
colour, race, gender etc. it is not allowed at all. It can actually hurt the sentiments of people and
can have a negative influence on the mental stability of the person. So, whether there are
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paramedics or the emergency department nurses, ensuring proper safety and security of patients
is their responsibility.
In the health care sector, there are several factors transformation included such as
fragmentation, access problems, unsustainable costs, suboptimal outcomes, etc. cost and the
quality concern changing with social and disease type demographic that create the greatest
urgency for change need. Caring and paying for the medical treatment for patients suffering from
the chronic health conditions (Simpson and Middleton, 2012). It creates significant concern
towards the health care sector. Affordable care act also includes several programs which led by
the centres for medical and aspects as well. It also improves quality and control cost to make
greater coordination for care across the setting. It improves quality of care and improve
outcomes that reduce spending with essential attributes to unnecessary hospitalisation. In the
particular nation, there are several steps also taken on the basis of which better quality and lower
cost will be considered in the business. Nurses are also positioned to contribute and lead with
transformation changes that are occurs in the healthcare that contributes by the several members
of inter professional team. Shifts are also requires new and enhanced set of knowledge, skills,
attitude, quality care, etc.
In addition to this, in the transformation changes of the health care occurring in which
nurses perform their roles and eduction to make well positioned. For the major players it has
been stated that it impact on the personal and system wide success. In the present report, leading
in the healthcare transformation and role of the registered nurse considered in leading for the
development of the activities. Overview of the key factors are also driving changes in the
healthcare reforms. Unsustainable growth of the healthcare consist accompanying excellence in
the qualitative outcomes.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that paramedics have to undergo huge competencies to reach to a
such higher position, whether it is about undergoing regular health check up's etc. these factors
have made the role of paramedics a sort of competition for the emergency department nurses and
their practices. There are some factors that can act as a barrier or challenge to paramedics as well
but there are various techniques to overcome them and continue the practising for providing
efficient and immediate treatment to the ones suffering and in need.
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Also, it has been observed that there are some factors that can act manipulative enough
for the roles and responsibilities of paramedics. There are clinical practice guidelines as well that
helps in providing a sort of direction to the factors and services that should be followed by the
paramedics so that a well and efficient rate of treatment along with appropriate number of
services can be provided to the people because paramedics are considered as for providing fast
and accurate treatments to the people who had undergone some major illness or accidents. Also,
they usually have to deal with life threatening conditions as well. So, the specialised set of
learning and training can actually prove helpful enough as it has successfully helped and
supported enormous cases of people thus providing them a better quality of life.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blaber, A. and Harris, G., 2014. Clinical leadership for paramedics. McGraw-Hill Education
(UK).
Campeau, A., 2015. Why paramedics require “theories-of-practice”. Australasian Journal of
Paramedicine. 6(2).
Edwards, D., 2011. Paramedic preceptor: work readiness in graduate paramedics. The clinical
teacher. 8(2). pp.79-82.
Hyysalo, S., 2010. Health technology development and use: from practice-bound imagination to
evolving impacts. Routledge.
Martin, J., 2015. The challenge of introducing continuous professional development for
paramedics. Australasian Journal of Paramedicine. 4(2).
O'Meara, P., 2014. Community paramedics: a scoping review of their emergence and potential
impact. International Paramedic Practice. 4(1). pp.5-12.
Orchard, C.A., 2010. Persistent isolationist or collaborator? The nurse’s role in interprofessional
collaborative practice. Journal of Nursing Management. 18(3). pp.248-257.
Ruston, A. and Tavabie, A., 2011. An evaluation of a training placement in general practice for
paramedic practitioner students: improving patient-centred care through greater
interprofessional understanding and supporting the development of autonomous
practitioners. Quality in Primary Care. 19(3).
Simpson, P. M. and Middleton, P. M., 2012. Beliefs and expectations of paramedics towards
evidence‐based practice and research. International Journal of Evidence‐Based
Healthcare. 10(3). pp.197-203.
Williams, A., 2012. Emotion work in paramedic practice: The implications for nurse
educators. Nurse Education Today. 32(4). pp.368-372.
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