{"id":19350,"date":"2022-02-07T10:51:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T09:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=19350"},"modified":"2022-02-04T09:53:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T08:53:20","slug":"life-as-a-student-paramedic-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2022\/02\/07\/life-as-a-student-paramedic-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Life as a student paramedic during the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-profile.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19353 size-medium alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-profile-194x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-profile-194x300.png 194w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-profile.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a>\n<p><strong>The following blog is written by Katie Ball, who is a third year student studying BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science. She reflects on her achievements and challenges on this course and whilst on placement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m Katie and I am currently a third year at BU studying <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bournemouth.ac.uk\/study\/courses\/bsc-hons-paramedic-science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I started my student paramedic journey at BU in 2019 and can\u2019t believe how much time has flown \u2013 especially now it\u2019s the year of qualifying! With COVID hitting part way through my first year, I don\u2019t think anyone anticipated how challenging these past few years were going to be. Especially with placements being cancelled and university going online.<\/p>\n<p>Our university time is split into blocks, we do a set number of weeks at university and then weeks of placement, these then alternate throughout the year. The variety (but not limited to) of assessments consist of practical exams (OSCEs), essays, written exams, interprofessional learning and placement. I found it gives an all-round learning experience as we\u2019re not only focusing on one specific type. We also have access to some brilliant facilities, such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/virtualtour.bournemouth.ac.uk\/health-social-care\/guided\/health-social-care_tour\/ambulance-simulation-suite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ambulance simulation suite<\/a> which is housed in the newly built <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bournemouth.ac.uk\/about\/professional-services\/estates\/developing-our-campuses\/bournemouth-gateway-building\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bournemouth Gateway Building<\/a>, which helps us develop our skills before applying them in during our placements.<\/p>\n<p>The taught sessions in uni really help in building a foundation of knowledge to then use when out on placement. The lecturers of the course are all so knowledgeable and always create a good learning environment, which I think is so important. They\u2019re quick in aiding any queries or concerns and are usually only an email away!<\/p>\n<p>Although university has mostly been online, it also heavily relied on independent learning and I found myself more motivated in preparing for future placements when back out on the road.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19352\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-student-paramedics.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19352\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19352\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-student-paramedics-300x192.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-student-paramedics-300x192.jpg 300w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-student-paramedics-768x491.jpg 768w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/files\/2022\/01\/katie-student-paramedics.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-19352\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katie with some of the other student paramedics<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But out of it all being out on the ambulance is probably my favourite place to be. The journey however hasn\u2019t always been smooth sailing. Having only worked part-time in hospital as a Health Care Assistant (HCA), I felt nervous going into a new environment with only minimal experience in patient facing jobs. But I didn\u2019t need to be so concerned, I soon found my feet and love every minute of it!<\/p>\n<p>I really enjoy being able to make a difference during someone\u2019s probably worst and scariest time and to also be a friendly face for both patients but their friends and family. It really is a worthwhile career.<\/p>\n<p>You really do meet friends for a lifetime at university and also nothing beats going to a university that is less than 10 minutes to the beach!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following blog is written by Katie Ball, who is a third year student studying BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science. She reflects on her achievements and challenges on this course and whilst on placement.\u00a0 I\u2019m Katie and I am currently a third year at BU studying BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science. I started my student paramedic journey&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2022\/02\/07\/life-as-a-student-paramedic-during-the-pandemic\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Life as a student paramedic during the pandemic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":19354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[496,19,503,798,12,1638],"tags":[2822,1876,1933,931,2542],"class_list":["post-19350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ug-courses","category-featured","category-health-social-care","category-placements","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-bournemouth-gateway-building","tag-facilities-at-bu","tag-health-and-social-sciences","tag-paramedic-science","tag-studying-during-a-pandemic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19350"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19392,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19350\/revisions\/19392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}