CompletedNot Applicable

Paramedic Independent Prescribing in Emergency and Urgent Care

United Kingdom42 participantsStarted 2023-10-17

Plain-language summary

The goal of this mixed methods observational study is to investigate paramedic independent prescribing (PIP) in emergency and urgent healthcare settings. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. What are benefits and limitations of paramedic independent prescribing in emergency and urgent care settings and how does it contribute to patient care and healthcare service delivery? 2. What facilitators and barriers exist which influence the implementation and delivery of PIP as a new and complex intervention within emergency and urgent care? Participants in the study will include paramedics qualified in PIP and staff working at the case study sites. With participant consent, data will be collected using non-participant observation of the prescribing practice of 4-6 paramedics at each site, capturing this data through field notes. The views and insights of a range of other site staff such as managers, doctors and other clinicians will be interviewed at each case site, during semi structured interviews. At each case site anonymised prescribing frequency data will also be collected to understand the range and frequencies of prescribed medication by paramedics. Relevant meetings (such as clinical governance and medicines management meetings) will also be observed, and documentary analysis of relevant site documents will also be undertaken.

Who can participate

SexALL

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Inclusion Criteria for Paramedic Prescriber Participants: * Registered Paramedic * Completion of an approved IP course and annotated as a PIP with the Health Care Professions Council * Registered as an independent prescriber with employing Trust and using PIP in emergency and urgent care practice. * Working in a role which is focused on the assessment of emergency and urgent care presentations. This includes undifferentiated minor and major illness and injury, urgent palliative care cases during out of hours periods and medical emergencies. Exclusion Criteria for Paramedic Prescribing Participants: * Paramedics who are not qualified or registered in IP, including those currently undertaking their training * Paramedics qualified in PIP but not actually independently prescribing in practice * Prescribing paramedics working in roles that are not associated with emergency and urgent care. This includes pre hospital critical care paramedic roles and those working in areas of secondary care outside of the emergency department. This includes intensive care, critical care, coronary care, ambulatory care or acute medical admission units. * Paramedics who are dual qualified and dual registered as another profession eg nurse- As this might influence data collection from the potential differences in prescriptive authority allowed from alternative professional registration. Inclusion Criteria for Case Study Interview Participants: \- Participants must be an employee of the case study…

What they're measuring

Range and Frequency of Prescribed Medications

Timeframe: 6-8 months

Understanding benefits and limitations of PIP

Timeframe: 6-8 months

Trial details

NCT IDNCT06107244

SponsorUniversity of Southampton

Sponsor typeOTHER

Study typeOBSERVATIONAL

Primary completion2025-03-01

View on ClinicalTrials.gov More Prescribing trials

Plain-language summary

Who can participate

SexALL

See this in plain English?

AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.