The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Matt's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Matt
After starting my working life in the media, I moved into the healthcare sector in 2004, working as a paramedic within the NHS, which I still do to this day. I moved into education in 2010, initially as a Practice Placement Educator and as a Visiting Lecturer on the BSc Paramedic Practice programme at Brighton University. In 2015, I joined the paramedic team at the University of Plymouth and in 2018 took on the role of Programme Lead for the BSc Paramedic Science. As well as overseeing the introduction of an updated programme and curriculum, I steered the programme through the many challenges of the covid pandemic. In 2021, I started as a lecturer on the MSc Global Health and as co-Lead of the Global Health Collaborative. I have helped to redesign and introduce a new suite of modules to the GH programme and am now also involved in the initial stages of developing new MSc Remote and Expedition Medicine and Diving Medicine pathways, which we hope to launch in 2024.
Outside of my employed work, I developed an interest in global health issues and in 2013 completed a MSc in Hazards and Disaster Management, at Kingston University. Following on from that, I became a member of UK-Med as part of their emergency medical team responding to international sudden onset disasters. After witnessing the Nepal earthquake in 2015, volunteering as a health worker in the aftermath, I maintained links with the country and have recently helped to set up a fledgling partnership between the University and a new, non-profit hospital (Siddhastali Rural Community Hospital). Working with colleagues in Nepal and the university, we aim to develop shared training programmes for staff at the hospital and healthcare students in the UK. In a broader bid to improve safer access to healthcare services in the area, we are also rolling out a series of sustainable-first-aid training programmes to more remote communities. This year I will be leading trip to Nepal with a group of paramedic students to initiate the project… hopefully the first of many such ventures!
Teaching
On the MSc Global Health programme I lead modules on Remote and Rural Medicine and Health and Humanitarian Emergencies.I also continuing to teach across many modules on the BSc Paramedic Science programme, my main area of focus being on clinical decision making.
Contact Matt
SF25, Plymouth Allied Health Centre, College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth, PL6 8BH
+44 1752 588879
matthew.griggs@plymouth.ac.uk
