Bio:

Kris is a Critical Care Paramedic, with extensive experience working in the emergency road and air ambulance settings, as well as in community paramedicine roles providing after-hours care on behalf of rural general practices. Kris has held several senior clinical leadership roles within Hato Hone St John, mostly recently as General Manager Clinical Improvement. In these roles, Kris was responsible for developing clinical pathways for patients with time-critical conditions including STEMI, acute stroke and major trauma, as well as pathways for ambulance patients with non-urgent conditions. Kris is a member of the National Ambulance Sector Clinical Working Group, which is the group responsible for developing the Ambulance Sector Clinical Procedures and Guidelines (CPGs). Kris has recently completed a secondment with Te Whatu Ora, developing paramedic roles within comprehensive primary care teams (CPCTs) as part of the Primary, Community and Rural Early Actions Programme. Kris has also served as Deputy Lead of the Te Whatu Ora Workforce Taskforce Paramedicine Profession Steering Group (PSG) during 2022/23. Kris’s main passions are clinical pathways and systems of care, the untapped potential of New Zealand’s health workforce, and health professional education.

His topics include:

• Management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)
• Post-cardiac arrest care
• Major trauma – diagnosis, management and hospital destination
• Acute spinal cord injury – diagnosis, management and hospital destination
• Acute stoke – diagnosis, management and hospital destination
• ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) – diagnosis, management and reperfusion therapy
• Fibrinolysis for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)
• Acute coronary syndrome (ACS)
• The ‘destination decision’ for patients with time-critical conditions
• Analgesia for acute pain
• Management of acute asthma exacerbations
• Introduction to the NZ Ambulance Sector Clinical Procedures and Guidelines (CPGs) for non-ambulance health professionals
• Utilising paramedics within primary care teams in New Zealand – enablers, barriers, and critical success factors