Australian EMS

[BEorP]

Hopefully I didn't miss a thread on this already, but it seems like we now have a number of Aussie members and I am hoping to find out more about EMS there.

What is the basic requirement to work on an ambulance and what are the levels of Paramedics (or EMTs or whatever the term may be) and education required for each level?

What is the pay like for medics?

What is the scope of practice like?

Do medics provide independent care or is a lot of communication with medical direction required in order to administer drugs or perform skills?

Is there an equivalency process for medics trained outside the country? (just curious :wink:)

[aussiephil]

BEorP,

Aussieland (or Gods great garden) is about the same geographic size as the USA, but we only have 6 states & 2 territories. Each state has its own state run Ambulance service & i can only speak for mine, others can speak for the states they are in.

NSW is the largest service in Australia with approx 4000 officers on road.

http://www.asnsw.health.nsw.gov.au/employm...employment.html

The above link describes our entry requirements.

There can be Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) & each case is assessed by the education centre on an individual basis.

If you come through general entry, then we pay for your education & you will be employed initiall for 8 weeks & based at our Education Centre. During this time you will recieve both Clinical instruction, as well as Protocol/Proceedure instruction. There are 2 exams 1 in week 4, the other in week 8. There is also an on road observation period of 1 week during that time also.

On completion of this, you are asigned to a station & training officers for 10-12 months, with your treatment etc assessed but your training officers & education continuse during this period.

At the end of this time you return to the education centre for further clinical & proceedural instruction for 3 weeks. Sucessful completion of this allows the officer to act independantly & the officer is posted to a station. This is for a period of 12-24 months.

Following the 12-24 months the officer is then returned to the Education Centre for another 3 week period, & sucessful completion qualifies the officer.

To progress further is at the officers choice & done on a competitive basis with applications, examinations & interviews to gain medic positions.

Our service also has specialties such as rescue etc that are also filled on a competitive basis.

Hope this answers your questions & if you have any others, let me know.

Phil

[Timmy]

In Victoria we have 2 services. Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) and Rural Ambulance Victoria (RAV). MAS primarily covers Melbourne and RAV covers the rest of the state. As far as education goes we only have ASL and Intensive Care Paramedics which is at least a 3 year degree, we also have CERT & ACO volunteers in remote area were there is a low work load, theses services are also run under RAV.

As far as I know there is no medical direction to administer drugs (not from what I’ve seen anyway) if your trained to give the drug then you give it’s up to you nor have I ever heard of a medical control….

As I said this is only for Victorian Services.

Some websites.

www.mas.vic.gov.au (Metro)

www.rav.vic.gov.au (Rural)

www.rav.vic.gov.au/cpg_disclaimer.asp (rural scope of practise)

www.med.monash.edu.au/mucaps (University/info about overseas medics)

http://www.aremt.com.au These guys will be able to tell you if your qualifications can be used over here. They should be able to help heaps.