Nature of the Work

The paramedic is a health professional whose primary focus is to respond to, assess, and triage emergent, urgent, and non-urgent requests for medical care, apply basic and advanced knowledge and skills necessary to determine patient physiologic, psychological, and psychosocial needs, administer medications, interpret and use diagnostic findings to implement treatment, provide complex patient care, and facilitate referrals and/or access to a higher level of care when the needs of the patient exceeds the capability level of the paramedic. Paramedics often serve as a patient care team member in a hospital or other health care setting. The Paramedic's scope of practice includes invasive and pharmacological interventions to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with acute out-of-hospital medical and traumatic emergencies. Emergency care is based on an advanced assessment and the formulation of a field impression. The Paramedic provides care designed to minimize secondary injury and provide comfort to the patient and family while transporting the patient to an appropriate health care facility.

Paramedics:

• Function as part of a comprehensive EMS response, community, health, or public safety system with advanced clinical protocols and medical oversight.
• perform interventions with the basic and advanced equipment typically found on an ambulance, including diagnostic equipment approved by an agency medical director.
• May provide specialized interfacility care during transport.
• Are an important link in the continuum of health cared.

Paramedics commonly facilitate medical decisions at an emergency scene and during transport. Paramedics work in a variety of specialty care settings including but not limited to ground and air ambulances, occupational, in hospital, and community settings. Academic preparation enables paramedics to use a wide range of pharmacology, airway, and monitoring devices as well as to utilize critical thinking skills to make complex judgments such as the need for transport from a field site, alternate destination decisions, the level of personnel appropriate for transporting a patient, and similar judgments.