Jennings, Katherine (2026) Easing suffering - ways of being a paramedic caring for young people stabbed deliberately: a hermeneutic phenomenological study. EdD thesis, University of Greenwich.

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Abstract

Background: Stabbing assaults involving young people is a salient social concern in the United Kingdom. Hospital admissions for knife-related injuries among children under 16 years increased by 93% between 2012 and 2019. Knife crime remains a major public safety concern despite recent slight decreases. Data on knife crime focuses on hospital-centred or police data, overlooking the prehospital aspect of caring for young, stabbed patients. This research study asks, ‘What meaning do paramedics make for caring for young people stabbed deliberately?’, and unconceals ways of being a paramedic when caring for these young patients.
Methods: Hermeneutic phenomenology provided the methodological approach to the study, informed by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. A purposive sample of eight UK paramedics participated in conversational, one-to-one interviews either online or in person, between April and October 2024. Participants were recruited via professional networks, including the College of Paramedics and an NHS ambulance trust. Ethical approval was secured from the University of Greenwich, the College of Paramedics, and the NHS, with IRAS procedures and data-protection standards observed. Pseudonyms were used and attention to participant wellbeing was integral. Interviews were open and dialogical; an interview guide existed but rarely constrained conversation.
Core findings: an overarching phenomenon disclosed itself: Easing suffering. This phrase names a mode of being with young patients shown through three constitutive patterns: - Readying, Reaching and Reflecting. Readying illuminated pre-arrival experiences as paramedics were thrown toward an unknown scene, accessing fore-conceptions and feeling fear or existential threat while preparing themselves, their equipment, and their stance. Reaching detailed arrival at scene and engagement with the patient and others, where situational understanding, connection and distance, sensitivity and task-focus, and moments of becoming unready-to-hand shaped what was possible. Reflecting brought forth post event feelings, as participants struggled for meaning, felt the weight of finitude, and orientated toward learning and future possibilities.
Conclusion: Paramedics’ experiences of caring for young people who have been stabbed revealed a deeply relational and existential form of practice centred on easing suffering. Encounters challenged purely technical conceptions of competence, and exposed the need to better understand the emotional, ethical, and contextual dimensions of prehospital violence. Paramedic educators are invited to intentionally incorporate hermeneutic, reflective, and trauma informed pedagogies into teaching practice to prepare learners not only for technical tasks but for the complex human realities they will face.

Item Type:	Thesis (EdD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	paramedic care, trauma care, stabbed, stabbing, hermeneutic phenomenology,
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Vulnerable Children and Families
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2026 13:43
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/54917

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