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Monday 19 August 2013

The Evolution Of The Advanced Practice Paramedic

By Bernice Terry


The modern advanced practice paramedic you may encounter will have undergone many years of training to provide a quality service which can save the lives of people across the world. They are a professional which can deliver fast, life saving treatment to those who need it, but where exactly did they come from?

The first paramedics can be dated back as far as military conflict began. Chronicles documenting the battles of the Roman civilizations have been found which have early accounts of these health care workers. The more elderly soldiers were often asked to go into the battlefield to pick up the wounded and deliver emergency health care. These were usually trained to stitch up wounds and amputate limbs.

The ambulance service is something which has long been associated with the paramedic. An ambulance is the method of transportation of a patient to an area where they can receive better health care for their illness or injury. Many early accounts of the ambulance service date back to sixteenth century Britain, in the times of the bubonic plague. After the epidemic became less prevalent, many people asked for the return of the service for other ailments.

Motorized ambulances started to be developed during World War One, where paramedics would be trained to drive vans to a nearby doctor or hospital and treat the patients they carried. The effectiveness of this service spread, and they were soon used in civilian life too. Many reports were carried out claiming that the service would benefit the greater public, as findings showed that survival rates on the battlefield were sometimes higher than those on the road in accidents in towns and cities.

In the early days of the paramedic, especially during wars, paramedics were not regulated in any manner. These people were given freedom with many powerful drugs, such as opium and morphine. These powerful narcotics can cause serious issues if not used correctly, however many staff of warships were allowed to use as much as they wanted on the patients, as there were not enough doctors to watch them.

The modern paramedic began to emerge about two decades after the war. Some studies in Ireland showed that the use of an ambulance to treat patients with a suspected heart attack or heart problems before they reached hospital increased survival rates, and so the idea of health care before a patient reached hospital was born. Because of this, paramedics began to be trained in emergency medical care.

An emergency health care professional has evolved more and more in the last few decades, as they now are trained to deliver fast, effective emergency medical care as soon as a patient in distress is reached. This gives the patient a higher chance of survival as they are treated before they reach hospital. In the beginning, different areas had different rules as to what the paramedics were allowed to do, and so a standardized training began to emerge.

Now, the job of the advanced practice paramedic is a rich, diverse one. Offering many opportunities, the job is vital for saving lives and ensuring man emergency department can run as quickly and smoothly as possible.




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