Abstracts should be submitted to: abstracts@nsw.acap.org.au by 30th September.

The conference will be held on 11th November at Mantra Resort, Ettalong Beach.

Topics of interest include:

• Evaluating current extended care paramedic practice
• Rural advanced practice models
• Evidence Based Practice for community care pathways
• Evaluation of international models
• Current research being undertaken in this field
• Future scope of practice
• Broader Health initiatives impacting on pre-hospital referral options

When: Tuesday, 21st September 2010
Time: 7.30pm to 9.30pm
Where: Ambulance Education Centre, Balmain Road, Rozelle
Register attendance to: srdavies@nsw.acap.org.au

The following summary provides the key ideas raised during the Symposium and some notes from Roger’s experiences.

• People who reflect on their clinical practice become experts faster than those who do not.
• Novices learn from the acquisition of cases, competent clinicians become experts by the development of cues.
• Data loss at handover (eg to triage) is a significant problem. Formal handover methods such as “MIST” may help.
• Working memory (a key part of “thinking”) is easily disturbed, has limited capacity and duration and is adversely affected by interruptions, stress, uncertainty and anxiety.
• 25 000+ research papers looking at the space between perception (recognition) and a decision being made by a person. This “diagnosis” space is highly complex.
• The human brain is designed to see causal patterns and relationships – even if they do not exist.

The symposium was held in a hall next to a similar conference for the aviation industry and I was struck by the volume of literature produced by the various aviation safety bodies.  A whole table was covered in articles devoted to case studies of in-flight problems, issues with a particular type of aircraft or adverse event trends. The aviation industry didn’t seem to have any issues with airing its dirty laundry in public. They have a policy of generalising their problems so that if a problem occurs in a landing at Singapore, by nightfall pilots in Sydney and Santiago will know all about it.  How different to healthcare!

To this end the Patient Safety group at the Ambulance Service of NSW is to be praised for its “Lessons Learned” articles. These present de-identified findings from recent adverse event cases so that other paramedics can learn from them.  If this type of material interests you I can be contacted at: rprice@ambulance.nsw.gov.au

Ken Ladd Hudson has been an active member of the Institute of Ambulance Officers and ACAP. Ken joined the IOAO’s in 1977 and was elevated to full Member in 1977.  Ken has served as NSW Branch  Committee member and then President. Ken was the NSW representative on the National Fellowship Committee and has been Chair of the very successful NSW Medexchange Scholarship program, which provided NSW paramedics with the opportunities to study overseas.  Ken was inducted into the College as a Fellow in 1992.

On behalf of President Ian Patrick and the Board of ACAP we thank Ken for his service within ACAP and wish him a long and happy retirement.

John Hall LMACAP

In 2011, Charles Sturt University is introducing a new distance education course in EMS Leadership and Management. The course is designed to provide a postgraduate academic pathway for paramedics and emergency medical services (EMS) managers who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in emergency medical service leadership and management. The program will have an international perspective and focus on EMS systems, leadership, professional identity and evidence based management. The course articulates with the Master of Health Services Management and the Master of Health Science for those EMS managers who wish to further develop their leadership and management skills.

This course aims to:

1.      Provide students with a fundamental understanding of the major aspects of the leadership and management role as it applies within emergency medical services and ambulance services

2.      Assist students to develop managerial competencies by equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate effective and efficient practice at professional and organisational levels

3.      Enable students critically evaluate the relevance of different conceptual approaches to leadership and management issues

Entry to this program will be open to those paramedics and EMS managers with considerable managerial work experience who may not hold a bachelors degree or equivalent. Further details are available on the CSU website . You can also download the flyer.

Why and what for?

Who is eligible to enrol?
Applicants must hold a Bachelor of Clinical Studies (Paramedic), an equivalent qualification or considerable approved industry training and experience.

For more information..
Download the brochure here or view the CSU website at www.csu.edu.au.

Copies of this poster were distributed to all Ambulance Stations and other facilities within the HIRT catchment area.

Click on the thumbnail of the poster to download a larger version.

ACAP (NSW) and Charles Sturt University, under the guidance of Professor Malcolm Woollard, are undertaking a randomised cross over trial comparing a conventional laryngoscope and the Airtraq in intubation. Participants for the mannequin trial will be sourced from the ACAP National Conference.

Professor Malcolm Woollard is the Director of the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care Research Unit in the Department of Academic Emergency Medicine at the James Cook University Hospital and Visiting Professor in Pre-hospital Emergency Care at the University of Teesside. He was formerly a Lecturer-Practitioner at the University of Wales Swansea and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Wales College of Medicine, where he led the establishment of the Pre-hospital Emergency Research Unit. Professor Woollard commenced his career as an ambulance officer and paramedic. ACAP (NSW) is part sponsoring Professor Woollard in Australia under the recent Scholarship Grants Program expansion.

Results of the trial will be published in an appropriate international journal and will also be published in the Response journal.

The report was released by the Chair of the New South Wales Parliament’s General Purpose Standing Committee No. 2 on Monday 20th October 2008.1

Mr Patrick said that implementation of the Report’s recommendations should enhance the quality of out of hospital emergency health care in both urban and rural regions, and contribute to greater community confidence in the standard of paramedic care in New South Wales.

Download the complete release here.