From the Back of the Ambulance to the Courtroom: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Law to Paramedic Students

Traditionally paramedics were trained using an apprenticeship model in the vocational education sector, by State Ambulance Authorities, with a focus on competency based training in clinical skills. In recent times paramedic education has transitioned to the higher education sector as a pre-employment degree qualification. Paramedics are often fearful of the law, adopting the age old analogy that lawyers are “ambulance chasers”, rather than seeing the law as an ally to the practice of their profession. The delivery of legal knowledge through lectures and tutorials alone does not allow paramedic students the opportunity to engage with the law in the context of their future profession. An innovative approach to the teaching of law to paramedic students through the use of simulation in conjunction with more traditional approaches to teaching such as lectorials, case discussions and workshops, allows the paramedic students the opportunity to engage not only with their clinical knowledge, but also with the law and legal process. Despite ambulance services becoming more aggressive with a variety of new approaches to reducing errors which may result in litigation, evidence based paramedic practice and root cause analysis for unexpected patient outcomes cannot fully alleviate the risk of litigation. Paramedics are human and humans by their very nature are imperfect and make mistakes. Through fully integrating a litigation matter from the service of the statement of claim and defence, through to trial and ultimately judgment, into the course, students are provided with a unique opportunity to participate in the pre-trial and trial elements of a litigation matter. This unique approach allows participants to experience the factual and legal components of a matter, without having to endure the stress, cost and uncertainty of an actual litigation. The simulation culminates with participants engaging in a mock trial