Clinical skills in paramedic practice

Having come from editing nursing journals for several years, one of the things that struck me when I started on the Journal of Paramedic Practice is just how much I took for granted the developments in nursing that are only now taking place in paramedicine. But when I remind myself how new the paramedic profession is, I am astounded by how incredibly far it has come so rapidly over the last few decades. As Taffler (2018) noted in a recent blog written for the College of Paramedics, ‘Remember, we've achieved in just over 30 years what it's taken nursing about 160 years.’

Looking at the expedited evolution of the paramedic profession and the growth taking place in prehospital care generally, it's difficult to believe that the paramedic profession is only about 30 years in the making in the form we recognise today, as well as the protected title of paramedic having only come into play in 2001 (Taffler, 2018). One of the aspects in which the profession has developed most is in terms of the scope of practice, and the breadth of clinical skills that are required to be carried out in increasingly complex and varied patient groups.