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Barriers and enablers to paramedicine research in Australasia – A cross-sectional survey
Ross, Linda Reynolds, Louise Reeves, Harry Hutchison, Amy O’Meara, Peter Pap, Robin Barr, Nigel Thomson, Michelle Reardon, Matthew Simpson, Paul
Ross, Linda
Reynolds, Louise
Reeves, Harry
Hutchison, Amy
O’Meara, Peter
Pap, Robin
Barr, Nigel
Thomson, Michelle
Reardon, Matthew
Simpson, Paul
Abstract
There has been exponential growth in paramedicine research activity and capacity over the last decade. With a strong academic culture emerging from its tertiary-based paramedicine education pathways, Australasia sits comfortably amongst the leading regions for paramedicine research. In the absence of clear paramedicine research priorities, there is concern that inadequate support infrastructure is in place to guide researchers, academics, paramedics, and policymakers within the profession to produce meaningful research capable of triggering change and advancement. The identification of paramedicine research priorities in Australasia, along with the barriers and enablers to research in this field, will prove invaluable to support the paramedicine profession, and improve healthcare systems, and patient outcomes in Australia and New Zealand. The study used a cross-sectional survey design which aimed to identify perceived barriers and enablers to the conduct of paramedicine research in Australasia and describe the demographic profiles and characteristics of respondents across professional, academic and research themes. Of the 341 respondents, 223 (65.4%) were male, 114 (33.4%) were female, and all geographical areas were represented. Approximately 60% of participants worked for a jurisdictional ambulance service in a clinical role. The median number of years of experience in paramedicine was 13 (IQR: 6, 24), with 52.8% having less than 15 years of experience. The analysis resulted in the identification of three themes for research barriers (system, process and human) and enablers, (work conditions, worker profile, and workplace). This study identifies the disconnect between stakeholders and the provision of resources such as funding, time, training, roles and data as major barriers to conducting paramedicine research. The ability or capacity of paramedics, as health professionals, to lead and undertake their own research was not questioned. The value of evidence-based research and autonomous paramedic-led research was identified as likely to empower future capacity within the profession.
Keywords
emergency medical services, out-of-hospital, paramedicine, research, barriers, enablers, research agenda
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
20
Issue
4
Page Range
107-116
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
File Access
Open
Open
Open
Notes
Diamond open access.
© The Author(s) 2023
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
© The Author(s) 2023
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.