Paramedic Research Methods: Importance and Implications

The modern paramedic will now undertake their professional training within a UK higher education institution (HEI). In addition to their specialist clinical training, other critical elements such as research methods will feature as an integral part of their programme. Often this component of the programme is not delivered by academic paramedical staff, but by personnel with other professional backgrounds. In this paper we acknowledge that the base of paramedic practice is still developing in HEIs and the development of the academic paramedic is ongoing. Students often face many challenges when undertaking the research methods module within their programme and to best facilitate this, we advocate that this part of the programme is delivered by academics with a background as a paramedic to give the best contextual learning experience