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Student placements

Thank you for your interest in joining Essex & Herts Air Ambulance for your Student Selected Component (SSC)/elective placement. We welcome applications from UK-based student paramedics and medical students (year 4 onwards). Please note we can only accommodate placements of four to six continuous weeks and placements must form part of your official course curriculum.

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has developed student focus links with the Faculty of PreHospital Care, Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh), University College London and Aarhus University Denmark and this has been extended to other universities providing paramedic and medical education. Students are offered a 4-6 week attachment with the team as a SSC of their medical training.

During the SSC, students can expect to:

  • Learn about the provision of helicopter emergency medicine in the UK.
  • Take part in daily training exercises with the duty crew.
  • Attend and take part in governance meetings to discuss cases that students and the teams attend.
  • Present a case study or journal club at a crew meeting or open clinical governance session.
  • Complete observer shifts on the helicopter and rapid response car with the duty crew (subject to availability; internal training takes priority).
  • Complete an audit or other project on an element of HEMS work.
  • Follow a guided study program as an introduction to the important topics in pre-hospital care.
  • Spend time with the East of England Ambulance Service Hazardous Area Response Team (HART).
  • Gain exposure to telephone triage and dispatch.

Previous students have presented posters relating to their projects at national and international medical conferences and have submitted journal articles relating to their SSC at EHAAT.

Due to the rapidly evolving world that we work in, we may occasionally need to adjust placements at very short notice.

Please note that we are unable to accept direct applications from students at UCL, Aarhus University and the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Students from these Universities who wish to apply for an elective placement at EHAAT must contact their department responsible for organising elective/SSC placements.

Due to the remote location of the air bases and the limited public transport links, the use of a car is almost a necessity.

Student Elective Application

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Student placement inspired Chris to become an Air Ambulance doctor

In 2010, Chris King was one of the first two medical students to spend time with Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT), gaining first-hand experience of the charity’s life-saving work. The experience left such an impression on him that Chris was determined to return one day as a fully qualified doctor. Chris achieved his goal in 2019, joining EHAAT as a Pre-hospital Care Doctor, and today he inspires the next generation of prehospital care providers.

Speaking of his return to EHAAT, Chris said: “I was thrilled to return to EHAAT nearly a decade after I was lucky enough to train with the charity as a medical student. Opportunities to gain any pre-hospital experience back then were extremely limited, but the team were so welcoming and really inspired me to learn more about caring for critically ill patients. I was training as an anaesthetist, waiting for the day I could return to EHAAT as a flight doctor.”