- SF11, Peninsula Allied Health Centre, Derriford Road
- +44 1752 587552
- andrew.webber@plymouth.ac.uk

Profiles
Mr Andrew Webber
Lecturer in Paramedic Science (Education)
School of Health Professions (Faculty of Health: Medicine, Dentistry and Human Sciences)
Role
Lecturer in paramedic science (education)
Andrew is primarily responsible for promoting high standards of learning for pre-registrant paramedic students at Plymouth. His role includes developing students' practical skills (eg. physical exam techniques, resuscitation), alongside fostering other important skills (eg. clinical decision making, critiquing and utilising evidence to improve practice). Andrew is also responsible for developing registrant paramedics who choose to undertake post-registration study at Plymouth. He has a keen interest in providing evidenced-based solutions to patients' unique and individualised situations and recognising Hampton's (2003) dated yet very relevant interpretation: 'Guidelines - for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men'.
Qualifications
- External-examiner for the University of East Anglia's (UEA) BSc(Hons) & DipHE Paramedic programmes from 2013-2017.
- During 2015-16, Andrew sat on the College of Paramedics' Postgraduate Curriculum Development Group to develop curriculum guidance for UK paramedics.
- Reviewer for Health and Care Research Wales (formally the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research: NISCHR).
- External adviser for the major review of the Public Services portfolio at University of Wales Trinity Saint David during 2016.
- External adviser for the PgCert Simulation in Health and Social Care at University of Salford in 2017.
- Andrew has consulted for non-NHS UK ambulance services to improve medicines governance.
Teaching interests
Teaching interests include developing paramedic students' clinical examination skills (eg. assessment of core body systems using the traditional medical models) and cognitive skills (eg. clinical decision making, analysis of ECGs). Also, keen to support traditional lecture teaching with alternative learning approaches, including: self-directed workbooks; technology assisted interactive sessions (eg. using Turning Point); outdoor scenarios; problem-based learning.
Module tutor for the following BSc(Hons) Paramedic Practitioner modules:
Research interests
Andrew acts as a research supervisor for undergraduate paramedic students; as well as supervising those undertaking the MSc Pre-hospital Critical Care Retrieval and Transfer.
The undergraduate projects have included:
- a survey of students' preparedness to practise
- an observational study comparing handling techniques to limit hip movement
- inter-rater reliability of the FLACC pain score between student paramedics and student paediatric nurses
- cross-over trail comparing the efficacy of commercial and ad hoc tourniquets to arrest low limb circulation
Andrew's personal research interests include:
Substance misuse and harm-reduction within the ambulance setting.
The role and remit of volunteer responders within ambulance services.
In an emergency, simple measures save lives (eg. basic resuscitation, early defibrillation). Several ambulance services train and equip volunteer community co-responders to attend patients with life-threatening complaints prior to ambulance arrival, and these responders play a vital role in the chain of survival. Andrew is interested in the effect that these volunteers have on measurable patient outcomes (ie. survival following cardiac arrest, response times).
2015
Naloxone for heroin overdose: an audit of one UK ambulance service, May 2015
Poster presentation at College of Paramedics Prehospital research Conference 'Questions at the Cutting Edge of Emergency Care', Hatfield, UK. Download poster at http://tinyurl.com/PlymParaNLX.
Reports & invited lectures
2014
Recognition and emergency decompression of the tension pneumothorax.