Paramedic PapersHome Daily scans 26 September 2026
Daily scan
Paramedic research, 26 September 2026
12 new paramedic and prehospital papers from the 26 September 2026 scan.
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Pit-crew CPR training improves intact survival
Report of an EMS pit-crew CPR educational initiative associated with improved neurologically intact survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest — abstract not yet available (ahead-of-print), so the study design and effect size can't be verified yet.
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No evidence on screening arrest survivors' psychology
Systematic review of structured identification and assessment of psychological, emotional or cognitive problems in cardiac arrest survivors — of 1,605 records screened, none met eligibility, so there is no evidence base for which screening instruments, thresholds, timing or referral pathways should be used.
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Feedback improves neonatal face mask ventilation
Prospective simulation study in neonatology fellows testing low-dose, high-frequency face mask ventilation practice with real-time respiratory function monitor feedback across T-piece, self-inflating and flow-inflating bags — feedback lifted tidal volumes in target range from 62.3% to 80.3% and cut mask leak on every device, while extra sessions without feedback added little.
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IO-first access likely inferior in OHCA
A pre-planned Bayesian secondary analysis of the PARAMEDIC-3 RCT (6,082 adults with OHCA) found an intraosseous-first vascular access strategy was more likely harmful than beneficial, with an 81.6% posterior probability it was inferior to an intravenous-first strategy for 30-day survival.
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Rescue breaths help in non-cardiac arrest
A nationwide Japanese registry cohort of 154,137 non-cardiac OHCA patients found bystander rescue-breathing CPR was associated with slightly lower 30-day mortality and unfavourable neurological outcome than compression-only CPR, with the clearest benefit in children and drowning arrests.
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Agencies vary widely on withholding and stopping CPR
A retrospective US cohort of 560,240 non-traumatic OHCA encounters found large between-agency variation in non-initiation of resuscitation (median OR 2.30) and termination-of-resuscitation decisions (median OR 4.13) even after adjustment for patient and agency factors.
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Family-witnessed arrest outcomes vary by age
An All-Japan Utstein registry analysis of 554,923 witnessed OHCA cases found arrests witnessed by family members had worse neurological outcomes than those witnessed by passersby, but the relationship reversed in elderly patients.
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Women's OHCA survival edge fades by discharge
A prospective Chinese multicentre cohort of 33,650 EMS-treated OHCA patients found women had better prehospital ROSC and survival to admission than men but no advantage at discharge, with the early benefit lost in older and shockable-rhythm patients.
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Post-ROSC ECG often misses occlusive MI
A retrospective single-centre study of 214 post-ROSC patients found nearly half of angiographically confirmed occlusive infarctions showed non-ST-elevation OMI patterns, and PR-segment prolongation independently predicted reduced 30-day survival.
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Nurse-paramedics caught between two professions
A phenomenological study of 13 Australian dual-qualified nurse-paramedics found they experienced a confused, fragmented professional identity — a constant 'tug of war' — driven by siloed governance structures and interprofessional rivalry.
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GPS beats app taps for measuring responder arrival
An observational study of 1,498 smartphone first-responder alerts in Germany found GPS geofence entry (50 m) gave more reliable and earlier arrival times (median 4 min 40 s) than manual app confirmation (median 5 min 50 s, often delayed or missing).
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Checklists may speed time-critical transfers
A UK HEMS service evaluation found introducing referring-hospital and transport-team checklists for time-critical interhospital helicopter transfers improved achievement of a sub-45-minute turnaround KPI from 52% to 64%, though not significantly.