Rate My Professor Gary Gilkes

Gary Gilkes is an Associate Professor in Paramedicine at Buckinghamshire New University, where he joined in 2024 as Course Leader for the BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science programme within the College of Health and Society. A registered paramedic since 2012, he studied Paramedic Science at Swansea University and participated in the European Implementation Scientific Education Network project at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, developing his PhD proposal. Previously, Gilkes served as an Associate Professor at Coventry University, leading a portfolio of paramedic programmes and developing international delivery provisions, including collaborations with institutions like the International Institute of Health Sciences in Sri Lanka to deliver paramedic science degrees and facilitate international recruitment. He has worked extensively in the ambulance service for over ten years, providing care and treatment, and holds roles such as Geographical Education Lead for the Midlands area at the College of Paramedics. Gilkes contributed to the development of the 6th edition of the College of Paramedics' curriculum guidance, programme management, and practice portfolio-based assessment. He is a Member of the College of Paramedics and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Gilkes' research specializations focus on implementation strategies within complex systems, particularly barriers to change in ambulance services to foster knowledge generation and profession-led initiatives. In 2025, he was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to investigate pre-hospital health disparities for migrants and refugees in Finland and Sweden, aiming to reform UK clinical guidelines to better reflect diverse patient traits such as age, gender, ethnicity, and history, and integrate these insights into the paramedic curriculum. His key publications include 'Staff wellbeing: a matter for quality indicators or a concern in its own right?' (Journal of Paramedic Practice, 2021, co-authored with S. Lipman and A. Hanson), and contributions to works on organisational factors impacting ambulance personnel health and the effects of shift work on paramedic families. Gilkes has delivered public lectures and webinars, including on veterans' mental health referrals and paramedic education summits, influencing paramedic training and practice regionally and internationally.