We believe this is staff networks at their best. Understanding the problems and issues communities face and working to do something about it. We quickly recognised two areas for improvement for ambulance staff based on the experiences of people within the LGBT+ populations. The first is transgender people who often have a difficult experience of health services in general. When it comes to ambulance services we found that many transgender people recognised the clinical skills of the people treating them, but found the personal approach 'clumsy'.
We found something very similar when researching people living with HIV. Some patients found questioning intrusive and inappropriate; one patient describing how they 'felt judged'. On the counter-side, when we asked ambulance staff if they felt appropriately trained to deal with people living with HIV, only four percent said 'yes'.
The resources we have put together are easy to access and will provide a sound understanding of the best approach when dealing with people. After reading the resources you can go the CPDme website where you will find a set of confirmation questions and space for your reflection. Once complete you can gain a CPD certificate for your portfolio.
These resources are designed to help ambulance staff deliver the best care. Remember our moto... informed care is great care!
Target 1,000
Between 31 July and 31 October 2020 we set a target to get 1,000 ambulance staff to complete one of the professional development packs. We achieved this with a total of 1,138 certificates being issued.
Hall of Fame
Putting together new professional development material is no easy task and we want to congratulate the many people who have helped with this work.
Josh Barraclough - Yorkshire Ambulance Service
Josh has been instrumental in putting together the whole Ambulance Service Trans Toolkit. The completed task took almost a year to collect all the information and refine in into what you see now. Josh is passionate that everyone can make a difference to trans people.
Josh was supported in this task by a large number of people, including Kath Henwood (Yorkshire Ambulance Service), Jonny Holmes (East Midlands Ambulance Service), Steph Meech (South East Coast Ambulance Service) and Sally Smith (Yorkshire Ambulance Service).
Tony Faraway and Adam Williams - South East Coast and North West Ambulance Services
Tony and Adam worked on the first part of the Providing Good Care to People Living with HIV resource. The research to understand patient experience and staff knowledge was not easy to obtain but you will find this provides a real insight into what currently happens and what surely needs to be improved.
The second part of this resource was originally written by Alistair Gunn (Yorkshire Ambulance Service) and Kat Smithson (National AIDS Trust) in 2018 in an attempt to improve awareness amongst ambulance staff. This is a very fast moving field of medicine at the moment and treatments are changing and getting much more effective.
Domini Lawson - CPDme
We are indebted to CPDme for supporting the National Ambulance LGBT+ Network over the last three years. Domini has helped to make our resources have real development potential and ensure that ambulance staff can gain important credits for taking part in these developments.
Grainne Slavin - Platform 74
Grainne is the graphic designer who has helped to bring The Ambulance Service Trans Toolkit to life. We are also a fussy bunch at the National Ambulance LGBT+ Network and we kept her busy with revisions for a few months!
Dave Race - Broadsword UK
Dave is the Managing Director of Sheffield based printing company Broadsword. He has helped us with all our printed materials over the past three years including all conference materials and goodies, and the very popular Recipe of Wellbeing Recipe Book produced in 2019. Both of our new resources are available in printed form and Dave always makes sure our products are made to a high standard of look and feel.