GRADS - a practice based curriculum for paramedics

Since becoming the newest registered health profession with the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency (AHPRA) in 2018, paramedicine has seen exponential growth. Guided learning through mentoring remains the main source for intern paramedics during their practicum. Surprisingly, there is no formal training for the mentoring, hence no curriculum for training mentors. The project reported in this paper is based on the case of Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS). It applied a sequential mixed method to record mentoring experiences of mentors and interns. Data was collected from in-depth interviews with seven experienced paramedics and three interns. Ten paramedics completed an online survey. These sources of data collated the mentoring practices and pedagogies that mentors used. The findings were used to design a curriculum framework for mentoring of paramedics in QAS. The framework comprised of five features: needs assessment, learning objectives, content, instructional strategy, and assessment. Aside to sharing their experiences, the participants suggested ways to improve mentoring in QAS. These included specific training for all mentors; stipulation of the mentor-mentee roles and expectations; consistency in mentors assigned to interns; support for mentors and paramedic interns from clinical support officers (CSOs); and dedicated time off-road to engage in mentoring.