Ambulance Driver, an evil term?

[Lithium]

C'mon now ... you know that won't happen til "paramedic" is a protected title ... WAIT! thats what the OPA wants to do, let's vote for the college of paramedics :wink:

peace

[JPINFV]

Hell, even some private non-emergency TRANSFER service's have the word "PARAMEDIC" splashed across their ambulance...

That really has to change...

Well, some services do use paramedics for some CCT transfers...

[Lithium]

No, this is more an Ontario issue ...

Every land ambulance in Ontario has to be licensed by the Ministry of Health and is designated as a paramedic service.

Now, since basically 1/3rd the population of Ontario, and therefore 1/10th the population of Canada lives in Southern Ontario, there is a HUGE market for patient transfers. The real ambulance services in place honestly can't support the demand for this and maintain effective 9-1-1 coverage, so private services are springing up like daisies.

In essence, most of these private for profit businesses are nothing more then a stretcher taxi service. However, because they need to use stretcher transport for these patients, they buy decommissioned ambulances. The problem is, there are NO regulations for these services. Most of the staff working for these services are EMS system rejects, paramedic students and wannabes with their advanced first aid.

The hospitals know that they can only use these services for 'stable' patient transfers, therefore again, they really are just a stretcher taxi service. Critical care transfers are done primarily by air, and some by ground in the Toronto region and stat transfers are done by the licensed ambulance service in that area. The education of our Critical Care paramedics is vastly different then the courses in the USA ...

peace

[BlueLifeSaver]

I have been called "Ambulance Driver" on several occassions. The state in which I'm certified has five different levels of certification for EMS personnel. They include First Responder, EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, EMT-Defibrillator, and EMT-Paramedic (known as Mobile Intensive Care Technician (MICT)). I will agree that the general public has absolutely NO idea how many titles are available for an EMS professional, and even if they did they wouldn't know the definition of each title. From what I've heard, we're either ALL ambulance drivers, ALL EMTs, or ALL paramedics. The differentiation of titles means nothing to the public, only to those of us in the EMS profession. Hell, even most doctors and nurses don't even know what each level of EMT can and can not do. It's all about public education. We need to step up and make the public we serve aware of what we do. Though we all drive the ambulance from time to time, we are all much more capable of providing patient care then what was offered back when EMS was born.

Stay Safe

[Leon]

Oh man I feel so happy.

I thought that South Africa was the only place where ems personnel are called DRIVERS.

What a relief to see its happening all over the world.

Be strong guys (and dolls)!!!!!!! :wink: