This year’s EMS 999 Research Forum took place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Brighton on 3-4 March 2020. CaHRU was represented there by Viet-Hai Phung and Professor Niro Siriwardena.
On the first afternoon, Viet-Hai attended a workshop on using visual methods in qualitative research by Dr Julia Williams from the University of Hertfordshire. She was joined by visual conference call by her colleague Dr Laura Abbott, who talked about her work with pregnant prisoners. Her research used images to represent qualitative research findings, including using actors to bring to life passages of audio transcripts.
The second day started with two keynote presentations including one from Dr Fiona Bell from Yorkshire Ambulance Service about a study on sickness and well-being among ambulance personnel, that CaHRU is currently involved in. Six peer-reviewed presentations took the conference through to lunch.
After lunch, there followed a series of oral poster presentations. Viet-Hai Phung presented the second of his PhD studies, an interview study with paramedics on their experiences and perceptions of attending to Eastern European migrant patients in Lincolnshire. There were some constructive feedback about how to take the study forward. Since conducting the paramedic interview study, Viet-Hai has undertaken a number of interviews with Eastern European patients themselves. He has recently received ARC funding to pay for translation costs for further interviews with Eastern European patients with a limited command of English.
The afternoon session continued with three further presentations , including one from Rachael Berry from the University of Tasmania. She presented her work on anaphylaxis recognition that she presented at the 2019 Paramedics Australia after winning last year’s EMS 999 Research Forum best research prize.
The conference concluded with a debate on the role of social media in disseminating research findings. There was an interesting debate about its role with the conclusion being that it has an important role to play but is not the most effective way of doing so.
By Viet-Hai Phung