LJMU celebrates winners of Paramedic Games 2022

The games, arranged by Paramedic Science Lecturer, Jen Vasey and current Paramedic students Mitch Clark and Stuart Selley, saw 15 LJMU Paramedic Science students, in teams of three, take part in eight different timed potential paramedic emergency scenarios. 

Each team was also accompanied by an applicant student, due to start the Paramedic Science course this September. 

The winning team pictured were chosen as they showed that they had a brilliant grasp of paramedics' technical skills throughout the competition. The judges, NWAS paramedics and the paramedic faculty awarded them the most points overall from the eight scenarios they attended. 

Matthew, Emily and Naomi, who were crowned the winners, said:   

"Winning the inaugural Paramedic Games at LJMU is something I don't think we'll forget. To see something like this come together and have the opportunity to be involved, has been emotional. 

“As a team, it has given us such a valuable opportunity to experience situations that we may have yet to encounter on placement. Working as a team whilst taking into account personal strengths and challenges, allowed us to effectively treat patients in the scenarios and have the patients' best interests in each scenario at the heart of our practice.” 

Jen Vasey, one of the event organisers, and lecturer at LJMU, said: 

“The Paramedic Games was developed with BSc students and myself after a conversation about my experiences of being in a paramedic competition team several years ago. I truly believe in the importance of immersive learning and the power of high-fidelity simulation in creating better clinicians. 

“What happens is you have all the physiological responses to attending an incident so you can put yourself in the situation and see how you react, ask yourself questions such as, am I knowledgeable enough? Am I confident enough? Am I calm enough? Except it isn’t actually life and death this time.

"You can then reflect on the whole interaction and keep improving. High fidelity simulation and experiential learning creates better clinicians, which then results in better care for our communities.  

“The Paramedic Games has brought people together, with a shared objective of improving learning experiences, better preparing our undergraduate students and ultimately saving lives. I hope those involved had fun, made connections and know a little more about themselves after taking part.” 

The Paramedic Games at LJMU would like to give a special thanks to the paramedic faculty, including support from the medical technicians, members of the North West Ambulance Service who gave up their free time to judge the competition, and Terry Williams and the team from Focus on Involvement, and Rob Walker and the team from Changes Plus, who were fantastic helping playing the role of patients, family, and bystanders. 

The students at the event also created a Learn with TikTok video for one of the scenarios of what to do if a child is choking which can be viewed here. 

Find out more about the Paramedic Games at LJMU here. 

You can find out more about studying Paramedic Science at LJMU here.