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Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: Prison healthcare departments recently started recruiting paramedics to assist in dealing with a rise in medical emergencies largely attributed to an aging prison population and an increase in novel psychoactive substance misuse. There has been little research investigating the paramedic...

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Autor principal: Johnson, Lewis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The College of Paramedics 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7783901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33456373
http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2020.12.4.4.1
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author Johnson, Lewis
author_facet Johnson, Lewis
author_sort Johnson, Lewis
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Prison healthcare departments recently started recruiting paramedics to assist in dealing with a rise in medical emergencies largely attributed to an aging prison population and an increase in novel psychoactive substance misuse. There has been little research investigating the paramedic role in this setting. This study aims to explore the strengths and limitations of employing paramedics within the prison healthcare setting from the perspectives of non-paramedic colleagues. METHODS: An exploratory mixed methods study was conducted in a UK category B remand prison, focusing on the opinions and observations of current healthcare and custodial staff. Paper questionnaires were completed by 32 members of staff and semi-structured interviews were conducted with two participants. RESULTS: Seven global themes were identified within the qualitative data: management of medical responses; effect of a specialist role; effect on ambulance escorts; contribution to professionalism within the department; effect on the role of other healthcare staff; prisoner interaction with paramedics; and difficulties encountered in role implementation. Of the 32 participants, 31 believe paramedics have had an overall positive effect on the provision of healthcare, with a variety of reasons explored. CONCLUSION: In a small exploratory study, it is suggested that paramedics possess the relevant skills and training to offer a meaningful contribution to the provision of prison healthcare; however, further research is required to explore the full scope of their contribution in this setting.
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spelling pubmed-77839012021-03-01 Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study Johnson, Lewis Br Paramed J Original Research BACKGROUND: Prison healthcare departments recently started recruiting paramedics to assist in dealing with a rise in medical emergencies largely attributed to an aging prison population and an increase in novel psychoactive substance misuse. There has been little research investigating the paramedic role in this setting. This study aims to explore the strengths and limitations of employing paramedics within the prison healthcare setting from the perspectives of non-paramedic colleagues. METHODS: An exploratory mixed methods study was conducted in a UK category B remand prison, focusing on the opinions and observations of current healthcare and custodial staff. Paper questionnaires were completed by 32 members of staff and semi-structured interviews were conducted with two participants. RESULTS: Seven global themes were identified within the qualitative data: management of medical responses; effect of a specialist role; effect on ambulance escorts; contribution to professionalism within the department; effect on the role of other healthcare staff; prisoner interaction with paramedics; and difficulties encountered in role implementation. Of the 32 participants, 31 believe paramedics have had an overall positive effect on the provision of healthcare, with a variety of reasons explored. CONCLUSION: In a small exploratory study, it is suggested that paramedics possess the relevant skills and training to offer a meaningful contribution to the provision of prison healthcare; however, further research is required to explore the full scope of their contribution in this setting. The College of Paramedics 2020-03-01 2020-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7783901/ /pubmed/33456373 http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2020.12.4.4.1 Text en © 2020 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Johnson, Lewis
Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title_full Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title_fullStr Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title_full_unstemmed Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title_short Paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
title_sort paramedics working in a prison-based healthcare setting: an exploratory mixed methods study
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7783901/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33456373
http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2020.12.4.4.1
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