Paramedic education: Are we teaching an inclusive clinical assessment approach that is effective for patients of all skin tones?

Harrison, Juliet (2025) Paramedic education: Are we teaching an inclusive clinical assessment approach that is effective for patients of all skin tones? Paramedicine. ISSN 2753-6386

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Abstract

Traditionally clinicians have been predominantly trained to examine and assess patients with a light skin tone, rather than patients of all skin tones. This bias in healthcare training could be contributing to the known health inequalities which are linked to a patient's ethnicity. Clinical assessment should automatically be inclusive of all skin tones to detect critically unwell patients early, but commonly used terminology suggests that paramedics may be trained to only look for paleness, reddening, mottling, pink or blue skin as areas of concern, rather than for skin changes that apply to all. Delays in identifying unwell patients risk the postponement of appropriate treatment, affecting patient long-term outcomes. To address this, paramedic education needs to advance forward using systematic key changes in the delivery of information, so that students can learn to assess patients in a manner that is habitually inclusive. The aim of this article is to spotlight these concerns, suggest modifications to clinical assessment and recommend changes to educational teaching philosophy.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
Related URLs:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	19 May 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	19 May 2025 19:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99296
DOI:	10.1177/27536386251335652

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