GNCR ambassador case study – Anna Broxson, North East Ambulance Service
Anna is an Advanced Paramedic in Emergency Care for the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), with a wealth of experience within the ambulance service, primary care, and acute care settings. Twenty years in the NHS have seen her work in the Hazardous Area Response Team, as a Specialist Paramedic in a critical care car, and she has recently finished her Master’s degree in Advanced Care Practice.
A period in primary care gave Anna further insight into home visits and paramedic services, getting to grips with the different EPR systems used as well as the GNCR.
Anna now works clinical shifts at Sunderland Royal Hospital alongside being in the NEAS critical care car, but her main role is leading one of the central divisions at NEAS supporting clinical team leaders, operational paramedics, as well as newly qualified paramedics.
How Anna uses the Great North Care Record
“In my role across NEAS and in Sunderland, I have been using the GNCR in my daily practice more than I did previously.
“At Sunderland Royal, I use the GNCR with almost every patient looking into the notes taken from the ambulance. This is where many of the details around electronic patient record form (EPRF) applications are shared and where we can get a lot of information of what actually happened on the scene.
“I often go into the care summaries to see the updated lists of medications, which is really helpful when it comes to prescribing. I might also access a patient’s GP records to give us an insight into immunisation records, blood results, and letters to piece together the full picture.”
How the GNCR helps deliver care to Anna’s patients
“That depth of historic and current information about prescriptions, what they’re taking, and their acute medicines is so important.
“I might be looking at somebody with a chest infection who tells me they saw the GP – you can then look on the record and see there’s an acute prescription already on there for amoxicillin. This helps us avoid doubling up on medication or making more work for the system.
“Whether it’s a loss of information, or poor communication of information between teams, sometimes when paramedics get to the scene they don’t have a full history. This could lead to unnecessary hospital attendances – not ideal for any emergency department.
“GNCR supports my overall proficiency, and it helps me get jobs done a lot quicker.”
Why the Great North Care Record makes a difference for NEAS
“The more collaboration that we can get into shared care records is just going to be super beneficial. It makes all the right information just one click of a button away.
“I hold a lot of value with the GNCR. In my current role, I think it’s more about the engagement and the understanding of the Great North Care Record and how we can utilise that in the pre-hospital environment. That collaboration of understanding what the system can fully do and how I can filter that down into my teams is an important focus.”
