Paramedics

[flymandy]

Takes the plunge.....

Takes the plunge.....

My cards on the table: I am a registered paramedic. I am old enough to be "old school" (pre-unimedic) but got qualified through getting down and dirty, rather than Grandparenting rights. Dealing with the dross, dirt, crime and violence that a decade+ of 999 calls in our festering capital qualifies me to say that most ambulance work is not Holby. However, ambulance work is unrecognisable from the bad old days when Kenneth Clarke MP dismissed us all as "first-aiders with a driving licence"

The most remarkable leaps and bounds have been made in the scope of practice for TECHNICIANS. I had the pleasure of seeing some very fine examles recently in the Bognor / Chichester area.

I have recently applied for 4626Sqn not to jump any queues, not to step on anyone's toes but because I have a real need to be treating and transporting our bods who continue to get hurt. Maybe it's a R.I.S.E. thing.

My motives are simple: do the best for the patient. Will I need to don my resentment protection vest if I get in?

 

[Oracle]

Paramedic Training

Paramedic Training

As has already been mentioned RAF Paramedic training is currently undergoing review but will hopefully continue in the near future.

As a medic speaking from outside the paramedic cadre my slant on the qualification is this. It is an additional qualification which RAF Medics (Med Asst and Med Admin trade title now defunct) can aspire to and many have. There has been a selection process and recruitment is from within the RAF medic trade as prior experience and training is an important part of the selection process it is therefore highly unlikely that recruitment will be extended outside the trade.

As to the recognition of a seperate trade this is a difficult and sensitive subject. All paramedics within the RAF Medic trade are medics first and paramedic is an additional qualification (a Q Annotation if you like). The only financial remuneration at present is an AIP. Maybe a specialist pay such as that for flight nursing attendants (another Q) could be considered for periods of paramedic employment. But can they be a seperate trade on a higher pay band? or even a specialist pay spine such as nurse is the real question behind the recognition issue. The main stumbling block to this is probably what they would do when not on Ops or continuation training, at present many are employed back in medical centres as RAF Medics on admin or med stores and I think that many now feel they are somewhat highly trained to carry out these duties, even with the mentorship and training they could deliver to the basic RAF Medics, raising the standards of the trade as a whole. This current arrangement will only show its value (good or bad) over time but for the present I think that it should be remembered that Medics are all one trade and any division between the two cadres caused by an inflated sense of worth will only do the trade more harm than good and breed an air of resentment on both sides of the camp.


Hopefully as has been suggested by the airships, once a sufficient number of medics are paramedic trained this will trigger a trade review and there may be an opportunity to gain the techie high pay band (watch out for incoming from the techies). DT_Xtremez_44:Until then its not ideal but we still must work together be we medic, nurse, psycho nurse, ODP, physio or lab tech (sorry, Biomedical Scientist) so crack on.

DT_Xtremez_05: