Future of the games
Over the past two years, the feedback we have received has been amazing. This inspires us to push the concept as far as we can to make the games the best they can be. The improvements will happen in stages, with each year improving on the last. Below is a sample of how we hope to progress. However, we cant tell you everything, we wouldn't want to spoil any surprises for the next games!
Introducing other Universities
The games began as a competition for LJMU Student Paramedics. However, since our proof of concept, we realise they can be so much more than that. Starting 2024, we hope to invite students from other North-West universities in order to drive up the competitiveness of our participants, and inspire teams to train in advance, pushing themselves to be the best.
With that, we hope to begin a series of additional training days for teams in advance of the competition. These days will focus on teamwork, allowing our participants to begin thinking with a similar mindset to clinicians on the road, as opposed to a student looking to pass an OSCE. These days will also cover skills that are only lightly touched on in university, such as trauma, maternity, mental health and more.
Increasing Fidelity
The Paramedic Games aims to be as close to real life as possible, a concept called "High Fidelity". To achieve this we use real people, from organisations such as Changes Plus and Focus on Involvement, to act as real patients or bystanders with lived experience. We also use moulage and SFX makeup artists to make patient presentations look as realistic as possible.
In addition to the increase in fidelity, we have decided to improve the access to welfare for our participants. Our proof of concept games highlighted to the Paramedic Games team that our highly realistic scenarios may impact mental health of some of the participants. It is therefore only reasonable to provide access to mental welfare services is our participants require it, as well as encouraging debriefing after each scenario.