Essex & Herts Air Ambulance launches summer research programme

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is launching its first ever Summer Research Programme led by Dr Stephen Tatlow through its Centre for Excellence, which invests in research, innovation and education to advance emergency pre-hospital care and improve patient outcomes. 

University students will get the chance to work alongside the air ambulance’s high-performing team of pre-hospital clinicians and will actively contribute to research to tackle the real-world problems facing the crews every day. 

Up to ten placements will be available to undergraduate students in or about to enter their final year of study and postgraduate students in any subject relating to medicine, critical care, or paramedic science. Placements are also available for students in subjects relating to Essex & Herts Air Ambulance’s priority areas for research which focus on cardiac arrest, head injury and patient experience. 

Training will be provided to help students develop essential research skills, understand more about pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM) and helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), and learn from other experienced researchers. 

Each student will contribute to a project from Essex & Herts Air Ambulance's existing portfolio of research which assesses the adoption of new interventions and technologies for critical care, the value of new approaches to clinical education, and the impact of the Air Ambulance’s clinical service. 

Dr Gareth Grier, Associate Medical Director at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance who leads the Centre for Excellence, said, “We’re so excited to be offering this research opportunity out to students. We are constantly looking at ways to improve our service to provide the best level of care when people need it most. The research projects these students will support on will look to address some key challenges within HEMS and help us set a new bar in the care that can be delivered.” 

Mark Jarman-Howe, CEO at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, added: 

“This is a unique opportunity for students to work alongside our dedicated teams, who attend over 1,900 patients a year, and to contribute to live research projects which could move the dial on how we deliver pre-hospital care. We have offered elective placements for paramedic and medical students for many years but this is the first time we have hosted a larger group of students to support our research projects. We can't wait to see the impact!' 

Applications are open now – for more information or to apply, interested students should visit go to the website for more details and to apply: https://careers.ehaat.org/job/db61468c-f8bd-4b01-8f37-f512e9c33ec9. The programme will run from July 6th to August 14th at the North Weald airbase.