Challenges Facing the Paramedic Profession in Australia

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The Challenges Facing the Paramedic Profession in Australia
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The paramedic profession is one of the most dangerous occupations in Australia.
Discuss the challenges.
A paramedic is a medical professional who provides healthcare to individuals who are
predominantly found in out of the hospital and pre-hospital environments and these situations are
mainly emergency situations like in ambulances as part of emergency medical services (EMS).
They are the most highly trained class of emergency medical technician working in the
emergency medical field. The width of the scope of roles of paramedics differ from country to
country but what is common for all of them is that they have the power to make autonomous
decisions on regard to the giving emergency care to patients (Waxmanand Williams2015).
In some countries like Australia, paramedicshave professional bodies who represent their
interests as they perform their duties. The Australian body is referred to as Paramedics
Australasia. Each year, these paramedics respond more than three million emergency medical
assistance calls. According to a report by Safe Work Australia (SWA), paramedics have the sixth
highest level of injuries that occur while they are carrying out their duties and also they have the
sixth highest reports and claims in men for mental stress (Williams, Onsman and Brown 2010).
This shows that paramedics in Australia face a variety of challenges while carrying out their
duties but there are also remedies to these challenges and this essay will name both of these
issues.
When paramedics are called upon they have a variety of roles to perform. They are
majorly responding to medical and trauma situations. These emergency calls can include
responding to illnesses such as labor and delivery, heart attacks and severe allergic reaction.
Thus, the paramedics will give the patients various medications in an effort to soothe their
symptoms as they are being transported to the hospital. They can be required to first when they

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arrive at the scene of the emergency to evaluate the health situations of the patients so that they
can know what step to take next (Lazarsfeld-Jensen, Bridgesand Loftus2011). They can also give
people who have their airways blocked by performing emergency respiratory procedures. Next,
when people get injured these paramedics can bandage their wounds. At times people can suffer
serious injuries from accidents to their heads and necks and paramedics are called in to stabilize
their head and necks injuries and time to stabilize the broken bones that patients might suffer.
They also have the duty to give medications to patients once they find out what their ailment is
and they can also give the patients intravenous (IV) fluids. They also have the skills to
resuscitate victims who have drowned. Finally, they help victims of heart attacks by performing
cardiac support and can also aid in the emergency delivery of babies for women in labor (Perkins
et.at, 2015, pp.950). For them to perform all these duties and more, they have to have some traits
like maintaining composure when they face stressful situations, be patient, know how to work
well with others on their team and as well as be able to think fast and on their feet while they are
responding to emergency situations.
In Australia, the paramedic profession is among one of the most dangerous ones as they
have one of the highest levels of fatalities of all professions. They also face a variety of
challenges while performing their duties but these challenges can have remedies so that the
paramedic profession can be made easier and effective. First, Australia is a vast country with
different terrains and remote locations and paramedics have to provide the best, efficient and
effective prehospital medical care to the population in these areas. It could be hard to reach all of
these people because the emergency vehicles may not be able to reach these people because the
terrain could be hard to maneuver. Thus this will make it hard for the paramedics to give the best
healthcare possible in a timely and effective manner. Also, the paramedics can get lost if they are