Paramedics' views on their seizure management learning needs: a qualitative study in England
Sherratt, Frances C. Snape, Darlene Goodacre, Steve Jackson, Mike Pearson, Mike Marson, Anthony G. Noble, Adam J.
Sherratt, Frances C.
Snape, Darlene
Goodacre, Steve
Jackson, Mike
Pearson, Mike
Marson, Anthony G.
Noble, Adam J.
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Abstract
Introduction: The UK ambulance service often attends
to suspected seizures. Most persons attended to will
not require the facilities of a hospital emergency
department (ED) and so should be managed at scene
or by using alternative care pathways. Most though are
transported to ED. One factor that helps explain this is
paramedics can have low confidence in managing
seizures.
Objectives: With a view to ultimately developing
additional seizure management training for practicing
paramedics, we explored their learning needs, delivery
preferences and potential drivers and barriers to uptake
and effectiveness.
Design and setting: Semistructured interviews were
conducted with a purposive sample of paramedics
from the English ambulance service. Interviews were
transcribed and thematically analysed.
Participants: A diverse sample of 19 professionals
was recruited from 5 different ambulance NHS trusts
and the College of Paramedics.
Results: Participants said seizure management was
neglected within basic and postregistration paramedic
training. Most welcomed additional learning
opportunities and identified gaps in knowledge. This
included how to differentiate between seizure types and
patients that do and do not need ED. Practical,
interactive e-learning was deemed the most preferable
delivery format. To allow paramedics to fully implement
any increase in skill resulting from training,
organisational and structural changes were said to be
needed. This includes not penalising paramedics for
likely spending longer on scene.
Conclusions: This study provides the first evidence
on the learning needs and preferences of paramedics
regarding seizures. It can be used to inform the
development of a bespoke training programme for
paramedics. Future research should develop and then
assess the benefit such training has on paramedic
confidence and on the quality of care they offer to
seizure patients.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/7/1/e014024.full.pdf
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014024