Learnings afforded to undergraduate paramedicine students through short-term health promotion activities

Health promotion is increasingly being recognised as an integral skill for many health professions as resource constraints push care out of the acute sector and into the community. Health professions such as paramedicine are reflective of this change, as their occupational role and scope of practice are progressively moving into the community setting. This is particularly relevant for rural Australia where paramedics are beginning to have a significant role in the community in health education and promotion, in addition to providing emergency response care. Consequently, tertiary education institutions need to provide paramedic students with the opportunity to learn about health promotion as a professional role in their future practice.

This research explored the learning afforded to undergraduate paramedicine students through participation in a short-term health promotion activity. The health promotion activity was conducted in 2022 over three days at a large agricultural event located in southern New South Wales. It occurred as a partnership between a University Department of Rural Health and the Australian Men’s Shed Association in delivery of the ‘Spanner in the Works?’ health screening and health promotion initiative primarily targeting rural men. First-year paramedicine students from a regional university participated in the health promotion activity under the supervision of registered health professionals from nursing and allied health backgrounds. To ascertain the learnings afforded to the students and the attributes and practices that facilitated their learning, the undergraduate paramedicine students were invited to participate in case study research based on the ECOUTER mind-mapping method.

Thirteen of the 14 paramedicine students who participated in the activity consented to participate in the research. Three key themes were identified as the attributes and practices that facilitated their learning, including the high-dose narrow scope nature of the activity, creation of a space for reciprocal connection between students and the community participants, and an unanticipated change in perception for the students who participated in the activity. Short-term health promotion activities such as this have the potential to provide students with an invaluable learning experience to prepare them for future professional practice.