Should paramedic research involve families?

It is generally a memorable situation that leads us to call an ambulance for a family member. However, relatively little research has explored family members’ experiences of emergency ambulance care. Doctoral candidate Eillish Satchell recently identified and considered all existing published research including family and bystander experiences and found there was plenty of opportunity for greater family engagement in paramedic (ambulance) research.

Service User Engagement Ladder (Satchell, Anderson & Gott, 2024) Adapted from Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969).

Definitions of ‘family’ in existing paramedicine research tend to be nuclear and heteronormative (limited to parent, child, husband, wife). At times those present at an emergency event were considered ‘bystanders’ even when they might have been partners, informal caregivers or have other strong connections to the patient. There was little acknowledgement that families from different cultures may have different needs.

Eillish developed the Service User Engagement Ladder to characterise levels of involvement of people in communities who use ambulance services (including patients, families and caregivers) in research. Many who work in palliative care clinical and research spaces value lived experiences and work collaboratively with community members, but this is not yet a widely accepted aspect of paramedicine research and policy.

Eillish’s PhD research is exploring experiences of whānau/families in Aotearoa New Zealand who have called an ambulance in the event of a death. Eillish is the recipient of an HRC Māori Health Clinical Research Training Fellowship.

Satchell E, Anderson N, Gott M. Paramedicine research with family and bystanders: A methodological review. Paramedicine. 2024;[Online first]. doi:10.1177/27536386241255387