--- Adrian Fogarty <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > and this brings us round nicely to the fact that
> paramedic training needs
> to be beefed up considerably. [Robbie]
>
> Exactly, as an experienced CCU nurse has already
> been through years of
> general nurse training before specialising for
> several further years,
> including various ENB courses, and despite that, as
> Martyn suggests, many
> still have difficulty with autonomy, especially with
> the more subtle and
> riskier decisions. Of course, nursing is steeped in
> anachronisms, so it's
> hard for nurses to - on the one hand - become
> autonomous in certain areas of
> practice, while they're still checking drugs with
> each other in another area
> of practice. And I don't believe ambulance
> technician training is remotely
> comparable to RGN training, while paramedic training
> is measured in weeks I
> believe, as opposed to years.
What you are forgetting of course is that paramedics
practice autonomously from day 1! There is no option
to phone the on call doc, call the crash team etc.
That is a BIG difference. Nurses struggle with
autonomous practice because nothing in their training
prepares them for it and very little of their
experince encourages it.
Cheers Fred.
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