Launch event for a new UCS paramedics course

University Campus Suffolk’s next open event takes place on Monday December 8 from 4 to 7pm at the Waterfront building, Ipswich.

The event will provide potential students with an opportunity to find out more about the courses available at UCS, speak to academics from various departments and attend talks on student life, finance and budgeting, whilst also talking to current students.

The evening also marks the launch of the BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science degree, which starts this spring.

The course is the first time students can study Paramedic Science in Suffolk and comes in response to a national need for paramedics. The East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) are mid-way through a recruitment drive for 400 student paramedics.

It has welcomed the new degree course and have collaborated with UCS on its development.

The degree will follow the College of Paramedics requirements that half of the course should be practice-based.

It will be led by Lee Cunnell, who has been a paramedic since 1991 and has worked as an advanced practitioner. Lee has been a university Lecturer teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students since 2009.

Emma Parker from EEAST said: “We are proud to be working with University Campus Suffolk in developing the BSc in Paramedic Science programme. The joint partnership working allows us to ensure that the programme is tailored specifically to the health care needs of the local community whilst ensuring that highest level of education is combined with the truest experiences of working as a front line paramedic.”

The Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Science at University Campus Suffolk, Professor Jill Robinson, added: “We are delighted to be involved with this very important initiative. Lee’s extensive experience as a paramedic feeds directly into his role as an academic at UCS and is a real asset to the new programme.

“We expect it to be a very popular degree with students.”

Lee Cunnell said: “We have ensured the patient is at the centre of the students’ development and we’re preparing students for the changing landscape of the NHS and the changing role of the paramedic. For example, we are already starting to see paramedics assessing, treating and referring patients. As there is an ever increasing demand to keep hospital admissions down, the role of the paramedic will become even more crucial and a much needed role of the future. At UCS the academic side will always be brought back to how it is relevant in the paramedic environment. We will be ensuring the degree reflects real life so students can expect to be out of the classroom and working a variety of shifts as part of their placements with mentors at paramedic bases across the region.”

Lee will be attending the open evening as well as paramedics from the EEAST who will be demonstrating how they respond to an emergency call to give a flavour of the kind of activities student paramedics will be doing when they are on placement.

The BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science at the Waterfront Campus, UCS Ipswich, will start on March 2, 2015. UCAS applications are being accepted now for the 2015 and 2016 intake.

For more information about the courses available at UCS and for more on the open event visit www.ucs.ac.uk or call 01473 338833