Paramedics are being included in clinical research teams to bring their unique skills and perspectives. Guests Kylee Smith and Lauren Koehler share their journey into clinical research and how they have created paramedic positions on their teams. They highlight the adaptability and communication skills that paramedics bring to the research field. Paramedics can serve different elements of research coordinators, research nurses, bridging the gap between patients and study needs. Above all, the speakers emphasize the importance of valuing experience at the site level and avoiding the perception that the site is just a stepping stone in a research career.
Episode Sponsor: ResearchRevolution.com
Quotes:
“Our paramedics are research coordinators first and foremost, but they’re also research nurses in that they can do clinical things. So they really cross all sorts of research roles.”
“That broad topic is really just adaptability and talking to people. We [paramedics] have a very different way of communicating medicine because we work in non-sanitized settings. We have to meet people where they are, and we have to do that extremely early in our career.”
“This is the first opportunity paramedics have had to really have a voice in their own career projections. Most of the time when paramedics have been involved the conversation has gone around them. We as paramedics, the paramedics on our team, having the opportunity to actually be involved in the advancement of the career is really exciting.”
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