Position Statement on The Impact of Covid-19 on Paramedicine Tertiary Education
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant disruption to Australian society. The Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans (‘The Council’) recognises the profound impact this crisis is having and will continue to have on the work and private lives of all Australians.
The Australasian tertiary education sector is experiencing major disruption with effects felt by students, academics and professional staff. Paramedicine tertiary programs face an array of challenges in the teaching and learning space including the cessation of on-campus teaching; mass transformation of curricula to online learning modalities; inability to conduct practical skill and simulation education; and the widespread cancellation of workplace learning by ambulance services, health departments and community and primary healthcare providers. Cumulatively these pose threats to the academic progression of students, in particular those in their final year of study and who represent the workforce ‘pipeline’ of the immediate future.
The pandemic is also impacting on wellness of students, academics and professional staff. Students hold legitimate concerns about how the inability to engage in the teaching and learning described previously will impact on their development as a health professional and on their short-term ability to graduate and transition into employment within the paramedicine sector. Moreover, students are experiencing financial pressure and anxiety associated with loss of casual employment income, impacting not only their ability to live but their ability to afford to continue with their studies. This impact will be felt not only now during the crisis; uncertainty around their academic and professional future may continue long after the acute pandemic period has resolved.
Academic staff are under pressure due to ongoing changes to teaching capacity, uncertainty surrounding research opportunities, unsustainable workloads due to their critical role in rapid mass transformation of units of study from face-to-face to online delivery, and their admirable commitment to providing continuous pastoral care to large cohorts of anxious students. Professional staff are also facing significant stress and pressure on their increasing workloads and insecurity surrounding ongoing employment. Staff and students must exercise patience and tolerance, as each overcomes their own pressures and problems.
The way forward hinges on innovation, collaboration, cooperation and flexibility from all who are key stakeholders in paramedicine tertiary education. Out of adversity comes opportunity. We are Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans | Impact of COVID-19 on Paramedicine Tertiary Education | April 2020 | Page 2 of 2 already seeing exceptional innovation and creativity by paramedicine academics, which will not only serve to overcome the challenges of the current crisis but which will change the core nature of paramedicine education and research into the future. Traditional paradigms must be challenged to facilitate adaption and accommodate new perspectives.
Collaboration, cooperation and flexibility is critical to facilitating solutions and ensuring student academic progression continues with the least disruption possible. This is particularly important in regard to workplace learning which functions as a collaborative partnership between education providers and state and territory ambulance services, and other health providers to a lesser extent. Flexibility is critical in the approaches adopted by universities and accepted by accrediting bodies that seek to allow students to develop and ultimately demonstrate the required skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary to ensure safe practice as a novice registered paramedic within normal academic progression timelines.
The Council, through its member universities is committed to engaging in collaborative and innovative strategies with a key aim of supporting the welfare of students and their academic progression throughout 2020. In particular, the Council is committed to developing pragmatic educational alternatives to clinical placements that enable final year students to have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate desired graduate outcomes such that they can progress to graduation on or as close to time as possible.
The key to achieving this goal will be collaboration and cooperation between universities, and between the tertiary sector and key stakeholders in undergraduate student education including the Paramedicine Board of Australia, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) paramedicine education accreditation committee, and the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA). The dynamic, rapidly evolving nature of this pandemic makes future planning quite difficult, so key to successfully navigating the challenges ahead will be a common pragmatism, responsiveness in action, nimbleness in decision making, and innovation in teaching and learning.
As the COVID-19 crisis continues, the Council will continue to work to promote the wellbeing and interests of undergraduate paramedicine students and paramedicine academics and professional staff.
Endorsed by Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans on 7th April 2020.
