Professor Will Broughton goes “beyond the sirens” in his inaugural lecture at BNU
Professor of Paramedicine at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU), Will Broughton, gave his inaugural lecture yesterday after becoming the UK’s second ‘Paramedic Chair’ earlier this year.
90 attendees, including academic and clinical colleagues, past and present paramedic students, and Will’s family and friends, congregated in BNU’s Gateway Lecture to hear Will’s lecture entitled “Beyond the Sirens: The unique and evolving nature of paramedicine”.
Will’s presentation began with a reflection on the ways in which paramedicine has changed since its inception, looking back to a 1976 publication which referenced “urban mobile resuscitation” and bringing the audience through history to the present day. Will discussed the change in gender dynamics in the profession, which used to train “ambulance men” but in recent years has seen the balance shift, with student paramedic cohorts including a majority of women.
Will gave an inspiring recount of his own experience, which started when he was a volunteer for the Red Cross supporting events such as music festivals. Will talked about getting his degree, founding the UK’s first student paramedic conference, working as part of the London Ambulance Service, working ‘on shift’ with his wife who is also a paramedic, and eventually moving into academia and becoming part of the cycle of training new paramedics. Will talked about the “honour and privilege” of being able to shape the future of paramedicine as an educator.
Range’ was a theme of Will’s lecture as he discussed the array of skills and breadth of expertise a paramedic needs to acquire. Will gave a humorous account of a New Year’s Eve where he became an emergency plumber, but also talked about delivering babies and holding patients’ hands as they take their last breath.
Looking to the future of paramedicine, Will said “The journey is very much on in a research context. We’re still a new profession and there’s still a lot for us to learn and develop. We need to embrace developments in areas such as technology and ask ourselves as paramedics, “what is our brand?”.”