Paramedic Independent Prescribing in Emergency and Urgent Care

NCT06107244 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRAS Number: 310457
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 42
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief 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. 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. 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?

Conditions

Prescribing; Prescribing Practices; Prescribing Tendencies; Prescribing Decisions

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Range and Frequency of Prescribed Medications

  Demonstration of the range and frequency of prescribed medicines used by paramedic prescribers in different EUC settings, including cross case comparison to highlight if and how PIP is being used to contribute to patient care, if there are any limitations to PIP, alongside any differences between the different emergency and urgent care settings.

  6-8 months

• Understanding benefits and limitations of PIP

  The development of a clear understanding of any benefits and limitations of PIP in these different EUC settings, including any contribution to patient care and healthcare service delivery, whilst also investigating any facilitators or barriers which influence this.

  6-8 months

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

1. Paramedics working in emergency departments and urgent care services who are qualified in independent prescribing and using this in their practice. 2. Site staff employed at the case study sites who have experience and insights regarding paramedic prescribing in emergency and urgent care. These are anticipated to include senior and junior grade doctors, independent prescribing leads within the organisation, clinical managers, clinical directors and other healthcare professionals at the site, including nurses and non-prescribing paramedics.

You may qualify if:

• 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.

You may not qualify if:

• 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.
• \- Participants must be an employee of the case study organisation and have relevant experience of PIP within the case study site. If required, informal discussions with potential participants expressing an interest will be used to confirm their eligibility and understanding of the research aims and objectives.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Southampton: lead

Study Sites (1)

The University of Southampton

Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

Location

Study Officials

• Susan Latter, PhD

  The University of Southampton

  STUDY CHAIR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 24, 2023
• First Posted: October 30, 2023
• Study Start: October 17, 2023
• Primary Completion: March 1, 2025
• Study Completion: March 1, 2025
• Last Updated: April 8, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)