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Introduction
The Australian College of Ambulance Professionals
(ACAP) was launched in 2000 as the national professional
association for ambulance professionals in Australia. ACAP
is the successor to The Institute of Ambulance Officers
(Australia) which was formed in 1973. ACAP introduced a
new organisational structure, revised objectives, and a
broadened membership base to be more inclusive of non-clinicians,
such as administrators, educators and researchers, and of
the expanding range of emergency care providers in the prehospital
setting.
The College supports the trend towards
university degree programs for both ambulance and kindred
professionals. Active participation in prehospital research
is a diverse and important growth area towards which many
important studies are often undisclosed due to limited publishing
space in quality medical journals. JEPHC aims to provide
a greater opportunity to publish in this field and to bring
up-to-date information from national and international sources
to the emergency primary health care community.
Choice of
title
The College is cognisant of the multiple
changes in health care delivery. The community increasingly
expects effective partnerships, integration and collaboration
in the provision of emergency health care services by knowledgeable,
up-to-date and reflective professionals who contribute to
the further development of these services.
Increasingly, prehospital care is involving
the disciplines of primary health care, public health, health
services management, disaster medicine and the social sciences
in a global approach to understanding and preventing acute
health events and in improving the outcomes from community-based
emergency health events. The title of the journal was chosen
to be contemporary, reflect these changes and project a
vision to the future.
The title was also chosen to reflect the
field of interest and its inclusive nature. Specifically,
the title does not focus on a particular function, such
as practitioner, clinician or educator, nor reflect a particular
discipline, such as Ambulance or Paramedic.
Why
electronic?
In deciding the publishing format for
JEPHC, the College Board of Directors sought advice from
College members, reviewed other professional journals, and
consulted librarians and editors of journals in a wide range
of health disciplines. In particular, the College specifically
reviewed journals in the prehospital emergency care setting
at an international level.
The College was also keen to reflect the
needs of its members throughout Australia and to accommodate
the interests of the increasing emergency care community
in the primary health care setting. The College was keen
to make the new journal as accessible as possible to as
many potential readers as could be accommodated.
The College was also cognisant of the growth
and success of similar online publications and had little
difficulty in deciding that the new journal should be web-based
and hosted at a site where expertise in the development
of the journal was readily available.
Mission
The mission of JEPHC is to:
Advance and promote the science and the art of prehospital
care research, education, clinical practice, policy and
service delivery; and,
provide a forum to reflect the professional interests of
the multidisciplinary emergency primary health care community.
Vision
JEPHC will become a peer-reviewed ejournal with the highest
citations and impact factor amongst international journals
relating to emergency primary health care.
Objectives
JEPHC will meet its mission and aspire to its vision statement
by:
-
Effectively and efficiently "running
the business" of the journal in a transparent and accountable
manner, by having a management committee, representative
of the hosting organisations and inclusive of the necessary
skills;
-
Demonstrating "editorial independence",
by appointing an editorial team representative of the
multidisciplinary emergency primary health care community,
and inclusive of individuals both with a track record
in the scope of the journal and with potential to take
future leadership positions in the editorial team;
-
Demonstrating a sound, internationally
recognised editorial process, by appointing an experienced
medical editor as mentor and consultant to the editorial
team, seeking membership of the World Association of
Medical Editors (WAME), and adopting, as a principle,
the existing international standards in the production
of medical journals, eg WAME, the International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE);
-
Having a national focus with an
international perspective;
-
Being peer-reviewed, included on
the list of approved journals by the Department of Education,
Science and Training (DEST), and listed in appropriate
electronic databases, including the International Citation
Index;
-
Publishing articles of the highest
quality in original research which advance the body
of knowledge in emergency primary health care;
-
Providing a forum for disseminating
evidence-based innovations and promoting critical thought
and debate on controversies in the field of emergency
primary health care and related disciplines;
-
Promoting the role of ACAP, Paramedics,
ambulance services and kindred organisations, in the
health care system;
-
Providing information which will
enhance the research, education, clinical practice,
policymaking and service delivery skills the multidisciplinary
emergency primary health care community;
-
Promoting the Australian emergency
primary health care community internationally and informing
the Australian emergency primary health care community
of international developments;
-
Ensuring that JEPHC is readily accessible
to all members of the College and of the national and
international emergency primary health care community,
including the ability to provide input, suggestions
and feedback to the JEPHC management committee and/or
editorial team, and to download articles from JEPHC;
and
-
Providing a nurturing environment
for individuals, groups and organisations working in
the emergency primary health care sector to publish
their work in JPEHC, by providing pro-active guidance
and support to potential authors, including a wide range
of investigative methodologies and articles to stimulate
debate and leadership in this rapidly changing field
of health care.
Values
JEPHC embraces the following values:
- Ethical principles required of researchers
and medical journals;
- The principles of good research;
- A multidisciplinary approach;
- Excellence in all activities;
- Inclusive & valuing diversity in
cultural, professional, organisational and individual
perspectives;
- Supporting personal professional development;
- Collaboration with the emergency primary
health care community and related organisations;
- Responsive to external and internal
communications; and
- Continually improving the structure
and process of the journal.
Scope
Clinicians form the bulk of the emergency
health care workforce. However, JEPHC will also reflect
the interests and needs of researchers, educators, policy
makers and administrators.
Ambulance services and Ambulance Officers
have traditionally provided the core of out-of-hospital
emergency health care, however, there has been a traditional
and significant contribution from other health disciplines,
such as medicine, eg general practitioners, and nursing,
eg. Royal District Nursing Service. Of recent times there
has been a significant broadening of the clinical scope
of practice and service delivery within ambulance services
which has blurred the boundaries with kindred health disciplines.
A two-way movement of ambulance professionals contributing
to other disciplines and professionals from other disciplines
contributing to ambulance has blurred these traditional
boundaries even further and generated new vibrant partnerships.
In addition to this increasing collaboration
between health professions in the field of emergency primary
health care, there is a concurrent entry of less traditional
providers, eg, community, workplace and fire service first
responders as co-responders with the ambulance services.
There has been an increasing degree of sophistication in
private patient transport services, an expansion of skill
levels by industrial first aiders and increasing inclusion
of paramedics in disaster settings, mass casualty incidents,
rescue, aero-medical retrieval and membership in international
emergency care schemes.
What is common to this increasing community
of health care professionals is a practice in the out-of-hospital
setting, frequently as providers of first contact, i.e.
primary health care, with a focus on, but not exclusively
restricted to, emergency health care, eg the interface with
the non-emergency patient transport sector.
An exciting recent trend has been a greater
analysis of the drivers for change within the traditional
ambulance and emergency care services. This has lead to
the recognition that other established disciplines can inform
and enrich the traditional, medically driven base of ambulance
services. There is now general acceptance for the need to
embrace and enhance the discipline of emergency health care
in the out-of-hospital setting with input and involvement
from other disciplines, such as nursing, behavioural sciences,
primary health care and public health.
JEPHC will reflect the inclusive
paradigm of "emergency primary health care".
Ownership/Control
JEPHC is jointly owned by the Australian
College of Ambulance Professionals and the Monash University
Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice
(DCEHPP), formerly, Monash University Centre for Ambulance
and Paramedic Studies (MUCAPS).
The organisational structure reflects the
intended separation of functions between the management
of running the business of the editorial process of the
journal which will be overseen by the JEPHC Management Committee,
and JEPHC Editorial Team respectively.
The ultimate control and responsibility
for the editorial policy and editorial content of JEPHC
is that of the Editor, as convenor of the Editorial Team.
JEPHC Management
Committee
The current membership of the JEPHC management committee
includes:
Les Hotchin, ACAP Secretary (Deputy Chair)
John Hall, Former Editor of ACAP journal "Response"
Ian Patrick, ACAP National President
Frank Archer, Director, DCEHPP (Convenor of editorial team)
David Shugg, Senior Lecturer, Professional Development Unit,
DCEHPP
Rhona Macdonald, Research Fellow, DCEHPP (Managing Editor)
JEPHC Editorial
Team
Editor and Convenor of Editorial Team
Professor Frank Archer
Managing Editor
Rhona Macdonald
Associate Editors
Ms Kate Cantwell
Mr Richard Galeano
Dr Hugh Grantham
A/Prof Ian Jacobs
Professor Judith Walker
Ms Andrea Wyatt
Consultant Medical Editor
Dr. Lyn Clearihan
Website development and maintenance
Leigh White, Web Team, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and
Health Sciences, Monash University
Editorial Board
ACAP
Information
Further information on the Australian College of Ambulance
Professionals is available on the College's website - www.acap.org.au
DCEHPP Information
Further information on the Monash University Department
of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Studies is available
on the Centre's website www.med.monash.edu.au/cehpp
Subscription
Information
Access to the journal website - jephc.com
- is, and will remain, free to all readers.
Advertising
Information
JEPHC will accept advertising subject to approval by the
management committee. Please contact the Managing
Editor for further information.
Indexing
JEPHC is currently indexed with CINAHL, EMBASE and Ulrich's
Periodicals Directory.
Archives
JEPHC is archived on this website and the National Library
of Australia's web archive, PANDORA.
Linking
JEPHC is pleased for other organisations to link jephc.com
to their website, provided they do not include our content.
There is no need to ask our permission.
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