Setting basic standards in a developing ambulance service: a qualitative description of the impact of the intermediate ambulance care course on prehospital care practice in Penang, Malaysia

The Intermediate Ambulance Care (IAC) course is a thirty-week training program run in Penang Malaysia which was adapted from the South Australian Certificate IV in Ambulance Practice. The adaption of this program was designed and implemented to improve the clinical education of ambulance practitioners in Penang. However, the IAC is not the only course available within Penang or wider Malaysia, which seeks to improve the standard of care within the EMS. The question that remains unresolved is: what has been the impact upon the development of prehospital care as an occupation? The prehospital care environment in Penang, Malaysia is a complex mix of government and non-government agencies, with variable training standards that lack consistency. Despite its central place in the public health system of many countries, there is little research or other literature available to inform the development of prehospital care education within developing countries. Even within developed systems, such as Australia, there is little evidence available to suggest how a program of education may assist prehospital care professional development. This research considers the impact of the IAC on the development of prehospital care practice and how the course might have contributed to the development of an emerging profession. The questions in this research centre on what the IAC has achieved within the rapidly changing emergency medical system (EMS) in Penang as well as considering the perceptions of leading professions, such as the medical profession. The study examined the IAC in light of the attributes of a profession as suggested by Greenwood (1984)