Initial experience in setting up a medical student first responder scheme in South Central England

Abstract

Prehospital emergency medicine (PHEM) is a recently recognised subspecialty of emergency medicine, and anaesthetics, intensive care and acute medicine, in the UK, and yet it receives little to no mention in many undergraduate medical curricula. However, there is growing interest in PHEM among medical students and junior doctors. Several programmes are in existence across the UK that serve to provide teaching and exposure of prehospital care to medical students and junior doctors. However, relatively few students are able to gain significant first-hand experience of treating patients in the prehospital phase. In this short report, we discuss our experience of launching the student first responder (SFR) scheme across three counties in the Thames Valley. Medical students are trained by the regional ambulance service and respond to life-threatening medical emergencies in an ambulance response vehicle. The scheme is likely to benefit the ambulance service by providing a wider pool of trained volunteer first responders able to attend to emergency calls, to benefit patients by providing a quick response at their time of need, and to benefit medical students by providing first-hand experience of medical emergencies in the community. In its first 15 months of operation, SFRs were dispatched to 343 incidents. This scheme can serve as a training model for other ambulance services and medical schools across the UK.

Mountain Rescue Casualty Care and the Undergraduate Medical Elective

“…This module commenced in 2008 as a response to increasing requests by Sheffield medical students for training in mountain rescue casualty care. This was in keeping with an increased interest in undergraduate teaching of prehospital emergency care [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Despite demand from students from surrounding areas, only 8 students were taken per year.…”

“…Therefore team members must also be competent mountaineers. Lack of formal training in prehospital care leaves medical students ill prepared to act in a prehospital emergency, where anything beyond BLS is required [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Therefore Sheffield medical students approached the local mountain rescue team (Edale), requesting an elective attachment to learn prehospital care skills.…”

Community first responders and responder schemes in the United Kingdom: systematic scoping review

“…This was challenging because they worked in the locality and may know the patient, their family or friends. Confidentiality prevented them from asking and yet they were often interested and concerned about fellow community members.Seligman, et al (2015) [13]The paper discusses the experience of launching the student first responder (SFR) scheme across three counties in the Thames Valley.Students participating in the SFR scheme in the Thames Valley region. The size of the SFR group as of August 2014 was 72.Data on the number of students participating in the SFR scheme were obtained from SCAS records.…”

“…Becoming a CFR was often seen as a way of giving something back to the community by helping others [4, 10–12]. The role was also seen as a way of enhancing employability within the ambulance care sector [13]. Some CFRs joined because they were already healthcare professionals who felt that it provided a good learning experience for them in a different setting [13].…”

A Short Intervention Followed by an Interactive E-Learning Module to Motivate Medical Students to Enlist as First Responders: Protocol for a Prospective Implementation Study

“…There is little doubt that they could benefit from adequate training in BLS maneuvers and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as these procedures significantly increase survival rates and neurological outcomes after OHCAs [ 9 ]. Some systems have strived to overcome this issue, and some medical schools have promoted a mutually beneficial collaboration with ambulance services by offering medical students the opportunity to become first responders [ 10 ].…”