ARming EMT and Paramedics

[aralius9]

I am doing a research paper and my topic is Why arent EMT and Paramedics armed? I need a few opinions. It will be greatly appreciated.

[paramedicmike]

Because we're not cops.

[Just Plain Ruff]

and we take care of patients, not arrest them.

Tell us your reason why you think they should be armed?

[chbare]

Opinions on an open forum where it's difficult to verify identity are probably not going to be very helpful if you are doing a research paper. You will need to do a literature review and probably look at working outside of the box to make connections. For example, many officers have been killed by their own guns. Could this issue have implications for EMS providers?

[island emt]

because the gene pool might get shallower than it already is.

[ERDoc]

Is that the topic you chose or the one that was assigned to you? Right from the beginning it sounds like a pretty biased topic.

[systemet]

So, opinions were asked for, so here are mine:

For:

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Arming paramedics might help some patients in areas where police response times are slow. Currently, most systems have some form of "staging" policy, where paramedics won't go into a potentially unsafe situation, and will wait for cops. In some areas, response times may be over an hour, and some systems may even hold these calls until the police department indicates that they are ready to respond. For severely traumatised patients, this delay in care, could result in additional morbidity or mortality. This would also preserve police resources.

It's not always possible to anticipate every violent situation. Many acts of violence against paramedics are committed by individuals under the influence of drugs, including alcohol, patients with acute mental health crises, those that are postictal, or hypoglycemic, and people that just simply aren't nice and don't play well with others. The information that dispatch is able to obtain is often severely limited, and sometimes violence erupts unpredictably. Having an armed paramedic might mitigate some of this risk.

Occasionally paramedics come across crimes in progress. In a paranoid right-wing fantasy world, it's always remotely possible that you could stumble upon an active shooter situation and intervene.

Against

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Firearms laws vary greatly from country to country, and indeed, between regions within the same country. I don't live in the US, but my understanding is that many laws regarding concealed or open carry and which weapons may be purchased vary from state to state? If your paramedics are working in an area that doesn't allow concealed or open carry, then they may need to either (1) become police officers, or (2) have the appropriate statutes changed, in order to carry a firearm. This carries a logistical burden.

There's an obvious training requirement for anyone carrying firearms in professional capacity. This would be expensive, and could detract from the time and resources devoted to other areas of training, including clinical care and driver training.

A firearm alone is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the challenges facing an EMT or Paramedic. So you probably need to add some form of impact weapon, and possibly a taser, or pepper spray. These all carry additional training burdens.

Focusing on firearm retention while providing patient care is an additional distraction, and being armed presents the risk of losing your weapon to a potential assailant. It's difficult to imagine what the rules for firearm discharge would be. Are your paramedics going to be encouraged to intervene if they witness a spousal assault? Is this putting them further in harm way? Are the relevant legal statutes present to permit intervention? What's the personal and employer liability in the event of an accidental discharge or injury to a bystander?

How often do you expect your paramedics to use these weapons in exchange for the training required? Is there a measurable benefit to your paramedics, your EMS or healthcare system(s), and your patients or bystanders? Are you existing staff fit enough to be expected to handle impact weapons? What will you do for staff who fail to quality?

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So, my opinion is that it's not worth arming EMS, because there's too large a training demand, too low a likelihood of needing to use the weapons, too high a risk of injuring bystanders or a patient who is disoriented, and that by doing this, you're essentially duplicating the efforts of another government agency, and encouraging mission creep. I think that there's very little benefit, and that there's a far simpler answer in continuing to encourage paramedics to follow existing staging policies. My job is complicated enough already, and it's difficult enough to meet my training needs to provide decent clinical care without having another set of training requirements. I certainly wouldn't want to be placed in more dangerous situations with inadequate training, which I think would be a recipe for disaster.

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I also agree that you seem to be begging the question. By titling your work, "Why aren't EMTs and paramedics armed", you've already taken a position, i.e. that they should be armed, before you've even outlined the problem and the merits of the different sides.

[mikeymedic1984]

I have been doing this a long time, and I have yet to need a gun (and yes I have worked urban 911 in the hood). Guns do not always save police officers, and many times when those officers (who train with guns all of the time) are in a shoot-out, they miss their target (even when standing less than 10 foot from the perp). How would you feel if in a moment of fear you unloaded 15 bullets in the generic area of the bad guy, and hit innocent people in the neighboring apartment / street / scene ?

I am sure there are some dead medics out there somewhere that could have used a gun, but you have a much greater chance of dying in an ambulance crash than you do from being assaulted.

[cprted]

Opinions on an open forum where it's difficult to verify identity are probably not going to be very helpful if you are doing a research paper. You will need to do a literature review and probably look at working outside of the box to make connections. For example, many officers have been killed by their own guns. Could this issue have implications for EMS providers?

And then consider whether having the providers being armed would have prevented their deaths. In many cases, the answer is no. When it comes to being ambushed, the reaction will always be slower than the action.

I am doing a research paper and my topic is Why arent EMT and Paramedics armed? I need a few opinions. It will be greatly appreciated.

You topic seems to assume that Paramedics should be armed. Be wary starting a research project from a bias like that. Instead, maybe your research question should be, 'would giving Paramedics weapons for self defence increase their safety?'

I think you're going to have trouble with this one either way. The topic of arming and guns is political and rife with polemic dissertations disguised as science (on both sides of the issue) that I think it'll be difficult to do any meaningful research without already being a use of force expert in the field.

If you can pick a topic yourself, why don't you research a disease, or a comparative look at cardiac arrest resuscitation techniques ... something that might inform your clinical practice in the future?

[FlightmedicSAR]

This goes back to the topic,,WHEN IN DOUBT-DO NO HARM. i BECAME A PARAMEDIC TO HELP PEOPLE. The Police are ussually first on

scene. You want to shoot people, be a cop. end of story. Cheers. very blunt, but the truth.