User Persona – Senior Paramedic
Bio
‘I’m a senior paramedic with over 15 years experience in the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. I’m based in a busy town and I see up to 10 patients per 10-12 hour shift. I love my job and take pride in providing high quality care for people in time-critical situations. I aim to treat patients at home where possible, avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions. When I’m with my patients I’m very much focused on the person but I use technology to help in decision making. I use data from the Shared Care Record in every encounter with the patient, where patients consent to view patients medical history, medications, and care plans.’
Quotes
“The shared care record is valuable when time allows because we can see what the patient’s background is and tailor our treatment accordingly.”
“The biggest frustration is it’s only as good as the information that’s being given or content that’s been put on that record.”
“Latency can be a problem. Sometimes it’s really slow to load.”
“It’s frustrating that we can only access it through EPR at the moment. If it was like an app on our workspace that we could access irrespective of the EPR, that would be a good step forward.”
Goal and motivations
My ultimate goal is to ensure every patient receives safe, personalised, and efficient care.
But I also have other goals and motivations such as:
- Wishing to only be called to patients that need ambulatory care, avoiding unnecessary resource use
- Avoiding unnecessary hospital visits by treating patients safely at home
- Making well-informed decisions using accurate, up-to-date patient information
- Having access to shared care records for understanding a patient’s medical history
- Being committed to adopting new technology that enhances the ability to provide good care
Challenges
I face many challenges with the technology I use. If technology fails me it can result in inefficiencies
and delays that impact my ability to provide the desired level of care, affecting patient outcomes.
Here are some of the daily challenges I face when I am out and about in the community:
- Having outdated technology and slow loading times during time-sensitive situations
- The ShCR having incomplete or outdated patient information
- Lack of seamless integration between different systems, requiring switching between platforms
- Being sent to a job that doesn’t require a paramedic because the dispatcher doesn’t have right info
- I didn’t know about the context launch option in the EPR because the button was grey and assumed I couldn’t interact with it
Opportunities
- Improve speed and reliability
- Introduction of real-time data updates
- Clearer visual prompt for DNAR / ReSPECT status
- Simplify access to patient/carer contact information including key safe codes
- Upgrading devices to faster, more portable options
- Better integration of data across healthcare systems
- Increased training and awareness of system features
- Access to a comprehensive summary view of the patient record
- An easy way to report issues with the ShCR