INTRODUCTION Paramedics often provide advance notice of patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI) so that emergency department (ED) staff can prepare for early aggressive management and expeditious thrombolysis, but the validity of this practice is unclear. Our objective was to determine the accuracy of prehospital AMI diagnosis by Paramedic Level III (ALS) attendants. METHODS...

OBJECTIVE Since March 1992, intravenous nalbuphine hydrochloride has been used prehospital by paramedics in the Plymouth area. This study assesses the impact of this intervention. METHODS A prospective study of the parenteral analgesic requirements of 1000 consecutive patients arriving by ambulance at the accident and emergency (A&E) department of a large district general hospital. Where pare...

INTRODUCTION Paramedics provide a substantial proportion of care at mass gatherings but do not typically release patients without physician assessment. OBJECTIVE To evaluate treat-and-release medical directives implemented at a large single-day summer rock concert. METHODS Medical directives allowed paramedics to administer acetaminophen, dimenhydrinate, diphenhydramine, or polymyxin B oint...

First, the authors compared undertriage and overtriage of the traumatized patients and found 2% and 17% undertriage and 35% and 66% overtriage for anaesthetists and paramedics, respectively. They conclude that "anaesthetists perform precise trauma triage, whereas paramedics have potential for improvement" although the authors themselves state that "skewed mission profiles make comparison of dif...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether paramedic interventions increased the rate of return of spontaneous circulation in the victims of out of hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 276 out of hospital cardiac arrests was made. Data analysed included age, sex, presenting rhythm, ambulance response time, presence of a pulse at any point, interventions performed by the ambulance ...

Background: Community paramedicine (CP) expands the paramedic role to emergency call prevention, yet little research has examined paramedics’ perspectives of CP. Aims: This study sought explore views regarding CP and training. Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based survey Ontario paramedics measured perceptions, support interest in Descriptive regression analyses were conducted. Findings: Of 452...

Background: Paramedics are subjected to high levels of stress, which increase their risk depression, burnout, quitting the profession, or even committing suicide.1 Some recent studies have focused on coping strategies used by nurses in response COVID-19 pandemic2, but little is known regarding paramedics. This study explored potential Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service (HMCAS) paramedi...

INTRODUCTION The number of paramedics in Israel is increasing. Despite this growth and important role, the emergency medical organizations lack information about the characteristics of their work. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of the paramedics' work, the quality of their working lives, the factors that keep them in the profession, or conversely, dra...

BACKGROUND Canadian Emergency Medical Services annually transport 1.3 million patients with potential neck injuries to local emergency departments. Less than 1% of those patients have a c-spine fracture and even less (0.5%) have a spinal cord injury. Most injuries occur before the arrival of paramedics, not during transport to the hospital, yet most patients are transported in ambulances immobi...

OBJECTIVES Long-term care (LTC) patients are often sent to emergency departments (EDs) by ambulance. In this novel extended care paramedic (ECP) program, specially trained paramedics manage LTC patients on site. The objective of this pilot study was to describe the dispatch and disposition of LTC patients treated by ECPs and emergency paramedics. METHODS Data were collected from consecutive c...