Bridging Crisis and Care on the Frontline: A Study of the Paramedic Communication Curriculum

With the recent expansion of the scope of duties for Paramedics, acquiring advanced communication skills and the ability to support interprofessional collaboration has become a critical educational challenge in emergency medical training. The purpose of this study is to verify the educational effects of a newly established course, “Paramedic Communication,” introduced for second-year undergraduate students starting in the 2023 academic year. By analyzing students’ perceptions in detail, this study clarifies the course’s impact on their knowledge of communication, understanding of interprofessional work, and development of ethics, while providing specific suggestions for future curriculum improvement. As a result of the analysis, the mean value for all 23 items was 4.30 or higher (maximum 5.0), indicating an extremely high educational effect. In particular, “Q23. I was able to hold discussions in a group” was the highest at 4.74 (SD 0.44), and statistical analysis showed a significantly higher evaluation compared to 18 other items (p < 0.05). On the other hand, no significant difference was observed with the four items: “Q6. Interprofessional work,” “Q12. Counseling,” “Q13. Pre-hospital care situations,” and “Q22. Sequence of events,” revealing that these were evaluated equally highly. It is considered that this course contributed significantly to the foundation of complex communication skills required for Paramedics by incorporating exercises using role-playing and group work in addition to knowledge transfer through lectures, thereby promoting students’ active participation. In particular, the deepened understanding of communication in “interprofessional work” and the “sequence of activities,” which are issues in the field, is an important educational outcome for future practice.