Provision of COVID-19 Vaccinations to Paramedic Students – A Recommendation for Phase 1A Prioritisation

The COVID-19 viral pandemic continues to have an unprecedented impact on health care provision in Australia and internationally. The Australian health workforce has to date performed in an exemplary fashion whilst under critical pressure during the management of COVID-19 outbreaks within Australia. The Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans (‘The Council’) commends the incredible efforts of the Australian health workforce in these difficult times.

The Council recognises and endorses the current version of the Australian Government’s comprehensive COVID-19 vaccine national roll-out strategy as informed by the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). Whilst frontline healthcare workers such as paramedics are explicitly identified and prioritised as Phase 1A, the plan is at this time silent on proposed prioritisation of university students in disciplines directly related to the provision of frontline health care.

The Council recommends that undergraduate paramedicine students receive Phase 1A prioritisation in the national COVID-19 immunisation roll-out strategy, in line with the prioritisation of registered paramedics working in jurisdictional ambulance services.

Undergraduate paramedicine students spend prolonged periods of time on the frontline of emergency healthcare provision whilst undertaking clinical practicums with ambulance services. On those practicums, they are not only present but integrally involved in supporting registered paramedics in the provision of unscheduled care across the spectrum of acuity to those with illness or injury. Whilst on placement, paramedicine students are required to work under supervision within and between sites currently prioritised as Phase 1a within the roll out strategy (for example, residential aged care facilities, hospital wards and emergency departments).

Paramedics, and therefore paramedicine students on ambulance placement, are challenged by attending cases to which they have no prior knowledge of a patient’s history or presentation until they are on scene and within close proximity to a potential source of infection. They and the students under their supervision are at high risk of infection due to the context of the work they do in unstable, dynamic, and unpredictable circumstances.

Further, the Council emphasises the vital contribution that paramedicine students provide to COVID-19 surge healthcare workforce capacity. In 2020, paramedicine students in some regions were deployed by State healthcare departments to bolster surge workforce capacity in jurisdictional ambulance services and other healthcare settings. The deployment of paramedicine students into the health system in varying supportive frontline roles remains a likely scenario should there be an escalation in the pandemic status in Australia, further justifying a vaccination prioritisation commensurate to that which the broader paramedicine discipline will receive.

Without appropriate vaccination protection, paramedicine students on healthcare placements may pose a risk to patients, families, friends, staff and fellow healthcare colleagues within the Phase 1a settings as well as being at higher risk of personal infection.

Dr Paul Simpson

Chair, Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans

This position statement was endorsed by the Australasian Council of Paramedicine Deans on 17th February 2021