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I have been doing this a long time, and I have yet to need a gun (and yes I have worked urban 911 in the hood). Guns do not always save police officers, and many times when those officers (who train with guns all of the time) are in a shoot-out, they miss their target (even when standing less than 10 foot from the perp). How would you feel if in a moment of fear you unloaded 15 bullets in the generic area of the bad guy, and hit innocent people in the neighboring apartment / street / scene ? I am sure there are some dead medics out there somewhere that could have used a gun, but you have a much greater chance of dying in an ambulance crash than you do from being assaulted.

And then consider whether having the providers being armed would have prevented their deaths. In many cases, the answer is no. When it comes to being ambushed, the reaction will always be slower than the action. You topic seems to assume that Paramedics should be armed. Be wary starting a research project from a bias like that. Instead, maybe your research question should be, 'would giving Paramedics weapons for self defence increase their safety?' I think you're going to have trouble with this one either way. The topic of arming and guns is political and rife with polemic dissertations disguised as science (on both sides of the issue) that I think it'll be difficult to do any meaningful research without already being a use of force expert in the field. If you can pick a topic yourself, why don't you research a disease, or a comparative look at cardiac arrest resuscitation techniques ... something that might inform your clinical practice in the future?

it's been like that ever since the empire took over the place

Those are the people that are going to save our world... Not religion, not philosophers, but people that are able to bring others together just by being silly..

Pillows are a hot commodity in my area, not for EMS per se, but all the ED's. We exchange linen at the hospital and if there is no pillow on the bed we're offloading to then we won't have one unless we take it from the patient. Generally I use an extra blanket folded up for the head and keep our pillow under the bench. If we get a long transport, or need it for splinting, or have a patient who is particularly uncomfortable (kyphosis, chronic pain, etc) I will pull it out. Unfortunately due to logistical realities I can't have a pillow for every patient and I do pick and choose when to use it, knowing I'll likely lose it. As far as hygiene goes, the pillow is vinyl. Remove the case, virox the pillow and put on a new case; problem solved.

Why would patients share linen? Failure to change sheets, pillow cases and blankets after a call would pretty much constitute laziness.