Introduction of the Academic and Professional Program “Paramedic” at TNMU

Training of paramedics at TNMU lasts for six years. The academic and professional program is constantly being improved, taking into account the specifics of paramedics’ training, whose main task is to provide emergency medical assistance to a person directly at the scene and during the transportation of such a person to a health care facility, as well as at the early hospital stage in the Emergency Department.

Another critical factor in improving the educational process is the influence of external stakeholders, particularly employers who hire our graduates. Annually, they play a crucial role in shaping the program through a survey organized by the Department of Education Quality Control of TNMU. Their feedback on the skills and knowledge they expect from our graduates is precious. It is used to identify and address any issues hindering the quality of education.

It is essential in this process to hold joint methodical meetings of departments with students. The Department of Emergency and Simulation Medicine of TNMU has implemented this practice since 2023. These joint meetings, held in an informal setting, provide a platform for students to voice their opinions on the strengths of the educational process and areas that require improvement. Their feedback is highly valued and often leads to tangible improvements in the program. In particular, students highly appreciate conducting classes to practice individual practical skills and their application in simple and complex scenarios of emergencies using high-tech mannequins and dummies. Each thematic scenario is built based on an actual situation. They are developed mainly by practicing teachers. A similar scheme of classes is offered to higher education students while working in the clinic. At the same time, they like working with actual patients in the clinic, particularly acquiring communication skills with patients of different age categories. It should be noted that external stakeholders pay special attention to this since a significant part of the calls for an ambulance remain non-emergency, during which the paramedic’s communication skills are essential.

While executing the scenarios, students, in addition to examining and determining the patient’s condition and performing basic rescue manipulations, offer to apply medicinal products in real-time situations. In connection with this, complete sets of prescription drugs are already being formed, and a sufficient number of dummies are being prepared for their administration. Future paramedics will use all of them during emergency scenarios. At the same time, the department prepared for publication the Atlas of Medicines, which is included in the standard set of the emergency team.

Regarding disaster medicine, students enjoyed working with maps of the emergency area. This allows you to determine the sequence of actions and the nature of the interaction of emergency brigades with other rescue services and make appropriate management decisions regarding its elimination. An indisputable “advantage” of the educational process on disaster medicine is the organization and conducting of joint tactical exercises at the final stage with the involvement of the State Emergency Service employees and the patrol police. At the same time, the study and practice of medical triage procedures and the provision of emergency medical assistance at triage sites require improvement.

Students also wished to devote more time to the registration of accounting medical documentation both on paper and on electronic media. The department decided to allocate a more extended period for working with such documents and to install a suitable software product for its mastery in practical classes.

In general, such meetings benefit all participants. On the one hand, the department sees specific directions for improving the educational process, and students feel the department’s efforts to enhance their professional training. All this allows for deepening the interaction of all participants in the educational process and achieving higher results.