Paramedic Science student provides insight into end-of-life care with award-winning case study
A GCU student has received a much-needed confidence boost after combining his passion for writing with his desire to help others.
Second year Paramedic Science student, James McEwan, was recently crowned the winner of the inaugural Class Professional Publishing Student Paramedic Writing Competition.
His 1000-word case study, ‘End of Life Care: A Time for Everything’, looked at the changing role of a paramedic and provided an insight into the difficult situations James and his colleagues can be faced with out on the frontline.
James said: “I really enjoy writing and that probably comes from me doing a lot of essays during my previous degree in History. I absolutely loved it and really tuck into each topic.
I then decided to change career path and came to study at GCU. I had a bit of time last summer, after placement had been cut down, and I found out about this competition with Class Professional Publishing, who are responsible for producing Paramedicine guidelines across the UK.”
He added: “I just decided to give it a go and the case study I wrote was loosely based on personal experience because I’ve done a few end-of-life jobs. Traditionally, it’s probably not been a massive part of the paramedic's role but medicine has recently changed quite dramatically in an exciting way. There’s a lot of work being done across healthcare to allow people to die where they want, so we constantly need to adapt to that.
There’s a lot more discussion across society around ‘dignified death’ and people’s autonomy in their final stages. It’s just a very interesting topic and it’s one - with the way things are going - that paramedics can expect to see a lot more of.”
After a challenging start to his University return, James was delighted to receive some positive news when it was revealed that he’d won first prize in the competition. His work is now featured on Class Professional Publishing’s ParaPass app – which provides paramedics with resources to support their Continued Professional Development.
He explained: “I was absolutely delighted, really chuffed. I remember running through and telling my wife because it was such a nice feeling!
It had been a tough year, with a lot of online learning - which I don’t think anyone really thrived off of. The pandemic is just one of these things in life that can’t be helped and I actually think the staff from the Paramedic Science programme have done a great job under a really challenging set of circumstances.”
James added: “Another issue I faced, that I think a lot of healthcare workers suffer from, was feeling like a little bit of a fraud - I don’t know if it ever goes away. There’s often this public perception that you know exactly what you’re doing all the time, and that’s not necessarily the case. I had a lot of anxieties around it and was worried that I wasn’t cut out for the job. It’s definitely been a big confidence boost for me to win something like this.”
By Ross Clark
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