Paramedicine aims to advance and transform the discipline by inspiring robust discussion, encouraging innovative thinking, informing leadership, and promoting research translation.
Toward that aim, Paramedicine is delighted to announce a call for papers for an upcoming special collection, the theme for which is ‘Equity in Contemporary Paramedicine: From Problem Recognition to Practical and Conceptual Solutions’.
Contemporary paramedicine encompasses a broad and evolving scope of practice extending well beyond the traditional perception of emergency ambulance response to acute, life‑threatening incidents. While urgent and emergency care remains integral to the profession, paramedics now routinely deliver both scheduled and unscheduled care across the full spectrum of acuity and complexity. Clinical encounters may be of low acuity but high complexity, or conversely high acuity with straightforward resolution, requiring nuanced assessment, decision‑making, and collaborative intervention.
Paramedics operate within and across diverse healthcare environments, including ambulance services, primary and community care, aged care, urgent care centres, hospital emergency departments, outreach services, rural and remote health facilities, and multidisciplinary teams. This breadth of practice provides opportunities to collaborate with community partners and to engage directly with populations experiencing the most significant barriers to equitable healthcare access and outcomes.
Health inequities within and beyond paramedicine are well documented. These inequities are often driven by the social determinants of health, structural inequities, and systemic biases. However, this special issue moves deliberately beyond simply documenting inequity to focus on solutions, both practical and conceptual, that can drive meaningful change. The emphasis is on identifying, analysing, and disseminating innovative, scalable, and evidence‑informed strategies that promote equity across the continuum of paramedic care. Submissions may include evaluations of interventions and programs that work, as well as conceptual frameworks, theories, and analytical scholarly perspectives that inform action toward equity.
Submissions should be solutions‑oriented and grounded in the practice, systems, and scholarship of paramedicine. We seek contributions from all areas of paramedic practice, including clinical care in ambulance services, community paramedicine, primary healthcare, regional and remote care, education and training, research, workforce, and policy.
The intent for this special issue is explicitly solutions‑driven. While inequities in paramedicine are well recognised, the purpose of this issue is to showcase and strengthen the profession’s capacity to respond. We prefer submissions that go beyond only describing the existence or scope of inequities, and will prioritise contributions that highlight how paramedicine can act, whether through practical interventions, policy innovation, workforce development, education, or conceptual advancement. Submissions may include empirical studies, program evaluations, or analyses of interventions that have been implemented or are emerging. Equally valued are scholarly, conceptual, or theoretical works that propose new ways of understanding or addressing inequity, or that offer frameworks for guiding future action. Authors are encouraged to include reflections on transferability, scalability, and implications for broader system change.
Accepted submissions will be published early-online, and the special issue releases in early 2027.
Find out more and submit your paper here.
Paramedicine is a paramedic-led, international, peer-reviewed open access journal which aims to advance and transform the discipline of paramedicine through high quality evidence.
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The College is the peak professional body representing and supporting paramedics and student paramedics across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand since 1973.
The College acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land and sea in which we live and work, we recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and culture and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.
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