Introduction/Background
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) defines regional Australia as everything beyond the major capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. This is important as Reginal Australia is home to nearly 10 million people – around 40% of the nation’s population (RAI, 2024).
HSM202 – The dynamics of health care practice is a core subject in the Bachelor of Paramedicine which frames modern health services as a complex system, and prepares students to communicate, and influence change as members of the health system.
Aims/Objectives of the presentation
The aim of this presentation is to explore HSM202 assignments, more specifically assignment two, to explore if students considered regional Australia in their assignment and discussions, or if they focused solely on the major capital cities and central business districts CBD’s). The objective of this presentation is to use antidotally evidence from the last cohort (2023), to determine if regionality was explored or discussed.
Methods
Paramedic students were tasked with writing a 2000-word assignment which discussed how teamwork, culture, decision making and communication can impact effective service delivery. Antidotally evidence from marking a large cohort of over 190 submissions was explored to highlight if regionality as a concept was considered.
Results
The key issues discussed by students included ‘ramping’ along with ‘drop off times,’ teamwork, communication, conflict with emergency room staff, ‘bed blocking’, handovers, and lack of resources. In relation to geographical location, minimal students explored a regional perspective, rather the focus was predominantly on the central business districts (CBD).
Discussion
Overall students noted the same issues, both within the central business districts and the regional areas. However, their focus varied, as students discussed these issues from their own perspective, rather than considering the wider issue, for example drop off times was discussed in relation to the 30-minute expectation of a CBD location. However, this discussion was not expanded to consider the drop off times for those practicing in a regional environment, and what could potentially impact on this timeframe. Those who explored this issue from a regional perspective again related this to their own geographical location and considered factors such as inaccessibility of suitable roads, or lack of medical assistance enabling paramedics to handover to hospital staff, or across boarder incidents requiring numerous collaborations, with a minimal number of students considered the wider perspective. This limited insight of students is worth noting from a teaching and learning perspective, as other subjects such as nursing, midwifery, medicine, and other health science subjects may find the same tunnelled vision.
The challenge for subject convenors is to question students’ views, encourage students to explored topics from numerous perspectives using inquiry-based instruction, and thought-provoking questions, ideally during tutorials as this enables students to interact with each other, acknowledging their different perspectives and diversities, which works well towards filling the void in their own personal knowledge base, whilst promoting rational enquiry which is effective in nurturing a positive learning outcome, including deep thinking and logical reasoning (Chu et al., 2021; Challa, Sayed and Acharya., 2021).
Conclusion
Students need to be challenged to broaden their viewpoint further, and consider the wider perspective, as it has been demonstrated within this antidoted review that the issues faced in the regions are similar in nature to those reported by paramedics working in the major cities and CBD’S. The difference comes as a result of varying factors which led to the perceived issue.
References
Challa, K. T., Sayed, A., & Acharya, Y. (2021). Modern techniques of teaching and learning in
