Paramedic (degree)

Review:

After 3 years

Level:

6

Duration

Typically the apprenticeship will take a minimum of 3 years to complete

You will be able to:

You will know and understand

Professional values and behaviours

• Promote and protect the interests of service users, carers and others through safe, compassionate, person-centred practice
• Practice autonomously within your scope of practice, recognising when to delegate or refer to others
• Be responsible and accountable for maintaining confidentiality
• Work in partnership with other health and social care professionals, agencies, service users, carers and families in all settings
• Practise safely, competently and effectively in accordance with the law

• The HCPC Standards of Proficiency – Paramedics3, and the Standards of Conduct, performance and ethics4.
• The QAA Subject Benchmark Statement – Paramedics5
• The statutory regulation, legislation that inform paramedic practice, including, data protection, Duty of Candour and Safeguarding
• The importance of maintaining currency of knowledge and skills through continuing professional development
• Your role and responsibilities and that of other health and social care professionals; how practice should be adapted to meet the changing needs of service users
• The value of critical reflection, research and evidence-based practice and the need to undertake further study to continually improve the service user experience

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

• Communicate appropriately and effectively with all service users, carers and others across the lifespan in a professional, caring and compassionate manner using a wide range of strategies and interventions
• Work with other health and social care professionals as part of a multi-professional/disciplinary team

• How to use communication and interpersonal skills to assess, and engage with, service users, carers and other appropriate people, and how to modify practice
• The range, scope and limitations of operational relationships between paramedics and other health and social care professionals, and work effectively as part of a multi-professional/disciplinary team

Leadership, Management and Team Working

• Provide leadership in paramedic care, coordinate inter-professional/disciplinary care when needed, and liaise with specialist teams to meet the needs of service users and carers
• Implement strategies to promote, exchange and evaluate collaborative working within a multi- professional/disciplinary team

• Human factors, patient safety and team working as applied to health and social care generally and paramedic practice specifically.
• Clinical leadership theories and strategies
• Coaching and mentoring theories and strategies
• Clinical governance and maintaining/monitoring standards
• Your leadership role in disaster management, major incidents and public health emergencies according to your level of competence

Paramedic Practice and Critical Clinical Decision Making

• Assess, evaluate and manage a service user’s condition, based on their criticality, and apply evidence-informed treatment to currently accepted best practice
• Supply and administer medicines in accordance with current legislative requirements
• Assess and meet the full range of essential physical and mental health needs of service users, and maintain dignity and well-being
• Make shared decisions with service users, carers and others
• Utilise critical problem-solving skills to make clinical decisions as part of the wider healthcare team
• Manage complex and unexpected urgent and emergency situations, while having a critical understanding of principles and concepts of paramedic practice and how these inform and guide rational clinical decision-making activities.

• The structure and function of the human body relevant to paramedic practice
• Human psychology and sociology, relevant to the acquisition and maintenance of health, sufficient to provide a context for critical clinical decision making and patient management
• Relevant pharmacology and the administration of therapeutic medications, including pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics
• How paramedic principles are expressed and translated into action through several different assessment and management approaches
• The clinical leadership problem-solving and decision-making processes associated with paramedic practice as a registered healthcare professional
• The relevant course of action, based on a rational decision-making process which includes a critical consideration of personal scope of practice and service user choice
• Decision making skills to assess, plan, deliver and evaluate care, communicate findings, influence change and promote health and best practice
• The conditions and emergencies encountered in paramedic practice, including assessment, treatment and management.