What is on the Australia paramedic exam?

[me123]

I am an English teacher and in the summer I plan to work in aquatics, mainly as a SCUBA diving instructor. I have an EMT-B license, but I want to study part time for the Australian paramedic exam so that I can help a SCUBA student who may have medical issues on a dive boat far from the shore. Can anyone let me know where I can find a curriculum for what is on the exam (especially which drugs I need to know about, which skills I need to know, etc.). Thanks.

[scubanurse]

As a PADI DM, I would suggest looking into the PADI Emergency First Response Provider http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/diver-level-courses/view-all-padi-courses/emergency-first-response/default.aspx

It provides more dive specific information. Having your Paramedic is great and I strongly suggest that as well, but some of the PADI courses will help in dive emergencies. There are a few members here from AUS who will be able to help you on how to go about obtaining your Paramedic card...

[uglyEMT]

scubanurse beat me to it. Take the First responder and /or Rescue Diver course. Both are great dive based emergency courses that will deal specifically with what you are looking for. I just completed my SDI Rescue Diver course and found my EMT skills came into use well as an adjunct to what the diver's emergencies were. Plus as an added benifit with those courses and your EMT or Paramedic card you can treat the patient from the bottom to the ambulance without having to wait for that level of care to arrive.

As for the medic course there are alot of members here that can help you with that.

Good luck

Edited August 2, 2013 by uglyEMT

[scubanurse]

Also, Rescue Diver is required for Dive Master, which is a pre-requisite for Instructor... If you are just starting out with SCUBA, I hope you know, there are a lot of steps between Open Water and Instructor, and at least 100 dives...

[Just Plain Ruff]

I can only assume that you are talking about the Australian summer since it's kind of their winter right now.

But since summer isn't far off, you should really start to get all your diving requirements out of the way now but re-reading the OP's post it seems that the OP is already a instructor. So they should know that info already.

And you DO NOT need to be a pramedic to be a dive rescue specialist but it doesnt hurt. I would suspect that you would not have the same equipment on the boat as a ambulance does. Plus if I remember my time in Australia right, the time from call to helicopter arrival is pretty short unless you are way out off the coast.

Sounds like a lot of fun though, at least for the person going to be on the boat.

[craig]

what Aussie paramedic exam?

do some research and you will find there is none

to beemployed as a paramedic in Australia, you either have to be employed by a state authority (as in ambulance service) or a contracted private provider (non emergency as in a 911) and have degree in prehosptal care/ paramedical studies

good luck with your search