medications

Allied health professional confidence in giving prehospital fascia iliaca blocks

The primary aim of this study was to determine factors affecting AHPs' confidence in administering FIBs in patients with a suspected neck of femur fracture in a prehospital setting..

Intravenous ketamine as an analgesia in prehospital adult trauma patients

The author independently chose to conduct a systematic literature review as it allows simultaneous searches of electronic databases while being the most effective method to find the best current,...

Legal aspects of prescribing

Paramedic independent prescribers may currently legally prescribe all licensed medicines and off-licence/off-label licensed medicines for accepted clinical uses where no alternative is available, but...

Patient-centred prescribing, autonomy and concordance

The following patient example provides a framework for discussion. The patient's name has been changed to ensure confidentiality, and only the information relevant to this article is presented. The...

Prescribing in mental health

Anxiety and depression are primarily managed with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as sertraline and citalopram. The risk-benefit ratio of SSRIs has been shown to be...

Non-medical prescribing for paramedics in primary care

The scope of practice of a paramedic in primary care will vary between employer, and depend to some extent on what the paramedic is used for. Speaking from experience, the author's practice is mostly...

Prescribing for paramedics: pharmacodynamics

Many drugs exert their effect on the body via an action on cells. The net effect of this can be to:.

Pharmacokinetics in paramedic prescribing

Absorption is the process a drug undergoes to enter the circulation. The most common route is the oral route, where drugs are ingested orally, and then absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into...

Understanding right ventricular myocardial infarction in prehospital care

To understand RVMI, it is necessary to look at the function of the right ventricle. According to Gupta et al (2013), the dominance of the coronary artery can be either right, left or balance. A study...

The prescribing paramedic: a pharmacology series

Pharmacology is a key component of undergraduate paramedic programmes. The HCPC (2014) and the College of Paramedics (CoP, 2019) curriculum guidance include pharmacology explicitly in standards and...

Should ascorbic acid be a primary therapy for sepsis in prehospital settings?

The objectives of this review are to: explore the potential value of intravenous ascorbic acid as a primary treatment for sepsis in the prehospital environment; and find out whether it can reduce...

Paramedic use of IV amiodarone to terminate supraventricular tachycardia

Transient SVTs are known as paroxysmal SVTs (PSVTs). Table 1 outlines the commonly encountered regular and irregular narrow complex tachyarrhythmias. Atrial flutter can be either regular or irregular,...