Doctorate
Doctorate Title: Confronting the vacuum of strategic leadership in paramedicine; why do we know nothing about it?
Doctorate Description: Paramedicine is undergoing a rapid change on a steep trajectory in a short time. Indeed, there is still a widely held view that paramedicine and ambulance services are two of the same thing, but the reality is starkly different. Whilst much attention is focused on the front-line of paramedicine through the lens of emergency ambulance services, there is a paucity of any real insight into the upper echelons in the corridors of power and influence of and within the profession and associated linked ecologies.
Professionalisation has been at the forefront of the profession's agenda for many years - developing organically, with no apparent clear or directed strategy. Indeed, whilst paramedicine demonstrates many of the classic hallmarks of a profession as seen in classic sociology of professions literature (McCann, 2022, Leicht and Fennell, 2001, Muzio et al., 2019), this development has not been in congruence with all parts of the sum. Paramedics in the UK are represented by, and regulated by UK-wide bodies – but work in increasingly stratified areas: 3 national, ten regional ambulance services in four public healthcare bodies reporting to four different governments – let alone outside the ambulance sector. With the profession no longer limited to its historical organisational home how can, and more importantly, does the profession have a strategy (Hambrick and Fredrickson, 2005) and who “owns” it? To date, research into the paramedic profession has almost exclusively focused on the operational frontline clinicians (McCann, 2022). This study aims to ask the following key research questions, at a senior/strategic level. Given the focus on strategic and system level thinking in the wider NHS at this time, this work is critical to add to this area of importance.
• How is the paramedic profession pursuing a professionalisation strategy?
• What are the roles and implications for different constituents in this process?
• How can we understand the boundaries of the profession's claimed “scope/territory”?
• How can we evaluate the possible success/failures of the strategy?
Details:
Type: PhD
University: University of York
Primary Supervisor: Professor Leo McCann
Category: Professional Development
Funding:
Start Date: 2023
End Date: 2028
Status: Ongoing
Thesis
Awaiting
Research Interests
Professionalisation, Leadership, Strategy
