Last month Dr Kylie Dyson was the first Aus-ROC PhD student to complete her PhD. Her thesis entitled, “Paramedic exposure to cardiac arrest and patient survival: does practice make perfect?”, passed without changes.

This research found that individual paramedics rarely treat cardiac arrest and increasing exposure is associated with improved patient survival. Also, paramedic exposure to a single complex procedure, endotracheal intubation, was associated with improved performance. These findings suggest that paramedic exposure to cardiac arrest and resuscitation procedures need to be monitored and strategies to supplement low exposure, such as simulation training, should be explored.