Promoting collaboration in emergency medicine

Background Collaborative practice between paramedics and medical staff is essential for ensuring the safe handover of patients. Handover of care is a critical time in the patient journey, when effective communication and collaborative practice are central to promoting patient safety and to avoiding medical error. To encourage effective collaboration between paramedic and medical students, an innovative, practice-based simulation exercise, known as interprofessional clinical skills (ICS) was developed at the University of East Anglia, UK. Emphasising patient safety, effective handover of care and teamwork, within the context of emergency medicine, the ICS promotes collaborative practice amongst health care students through the use of high- and low-fidelity simulation, human factors and values-based practice. Methods A total of 123 undergraduate students from paramedic (60) and medical backgrounds (63) took part in the ICS. Evaluation data were collected from all students through the completion of an internal feedback/satisfaction questionnaire with 13 statements and one open-ended comment box. Results The response rate for the questionnaire was 100%. Of the 123 students from paramedic and medical disciplines, 99% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement 'I enjoyed this session'. Students also felt that the ICS helped them to build mutual respect (98%), enhance understanding of roles (94%) and develop as collaborative practitioners (92%). Conclusion The ICS is an innovative, enjoyable and meaningful intervention for promoting interprofessional collaborative practice between paramedic and medical students in a simulated practice setting. It encourages students to gain core training in clinical skills and patient safety, within a safe, supervised environment.