Designing a Questionnaire to Review Cultural Competency in Australian and New Zealand Paramedic Courses

Abstract

Designing a questionnaire to review cultural competency in Australian and New Zealand paramedic education courses provides the focus of this paper. The paper emerged from a larger research project, which sought to explore the extent to which health professions include cultural competency in their curricula. The purpose of designing a questionnaire was to review Australian and New Zealand paramedic education courses to discover the presence and coverage of cultural competency in the paramedic curriculum. To the best of our knowledge, no current research explores this theme. The absence of such research provided an opportunity to rectify this gap and contribute to the development of the paramedic curriculum, particularly with the proliferation of cultural competency courses in other health professions. This research makes an important contribution to the new academic discipline of paramedic research. The methods used for designing a questionnaire utilised three statements and guidelines on research practice, in addition to a literature review that informed the design process. The research outcome is a paramedic specific questionnaire based on a carefully constructed design process which education researchers could use or adapt to their needs for exploring other curriculum topics.