Abstract
BackgroundClinical placement is an essential element of paramedicine education and training as the profession completes the transition from vocational training to a pre-employment, university based model. The objective of this study was to survey pre-employment paramedicine students at Universities in Victoria, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand to measure their self-assessed preparedness for clinical placement.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study involving paper-based questionnaires employing a convenience sample of 682 undergraduate paramedicine students (years 1–4) who had completed at least one clinical placement. Student perceptions of preparedness for clinical placement were measured using an adaptation of the ‘Preparedness for Hospital Practice’ questionnaire.ResultsThere are significant differences in students’ perception of preparedness for clinical placement, which reflects the differences between universities in relation to structure of their paramedicine programs, the timing of clinical education and the number of hours of clinical placement.DiscussionThere needs to be clinical placement agreements between the ambulance services and universities that clearly describe the standards and expected elements of a quality clinical placement.ConclusionsIn order to improve the preparedness for placement for paramedicine students, a united approach is required by all stakeholders, including ambulance services, students and universities.
Highlights
Clinical placement is an essential element of paramedicine education and training as the profession completes the transition from vocational training to a pre-employment, university based model
In order to improve the preparedness for placement for paramedicine students, a united approach is required by all stakeholders, including ambulance services, students and universities
There is a paucity of literature about how to evaluate and measure quality in paramedicine clinical placements in any setting as clinical education literature is mostly conducted with nursing and medical students [7]
Summary
Clinical placement is an essential element of paramedicine education and training as the profession completes the transition from vocational training to a pre-employment, university based model. The objective of this study was to survey pre-employment paramedicine students at Universities in Victoria, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand to measure their self-assessed preparedness for clinical placement. As vocationally based post-employment training draws to an end, there are 17 universities in Australia and New Zealand that offer a pre-employment Bachelor degree program as a pathway to paramedicine practice [3, 4]. In Australia and New Zealand there are currently no standards or requirements about the number of hours of clinical placement, where they should be located (ambulance service, hospital, simulation) nor how to measure quality. There is much variety in the number of hours of Hickson et al BMC Medical Education (2015) 15:168 clinical education, which year of study they are linked with, whether placements are situated in the ambulance service, hospital, pre-hospital or community setting, and whether placement hours include simulated clinical experiences [5]. Whilst there is research in paramedicine about student perceptions of the learning environment [6,7,8], and how simulations can be used as an alternative for clinical education [9, 10] we were able to locate only one study [11] that directly explored paramedicine students’ preparedness for clinical placement
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