References
Industrial paramedic: an emerging speciality?
Abstract
The role of paramedic, from its humble beginnings as an entirely ambulance-based profession (and under the solely-NHS employment umbrella), has produced numerous speciality grades in recent years. Within the UK, some of these are represented by the College of Paramedics; however, others are unfortunately not, as yet.
For example: the roles of CCP, ECP/PP (critical care paramedic, emergency care practitioner/paramedic practitioner), military paramedic, HEMS (helicopter emergency medical service) and coastguard paramedics, HART (hazardous area response team) paramedics and offshore paramedics are well recognised and established specialised disciplines, often with their own separate, university-based courses to ‘top up’ on the existing paramedic Bachelor of Science.
Some specialities, such as remote area and emergency department paramedics, are less well understood and represented.
The purpose of this article is to describe the role of the industrial paramedic. It will outline why the skill-set of this role is unique in comparison with those mentioned above, and will debate the case for stand-alone recognition and specific training for this speciality.
The first question facing the industrial paramedic—and indeed within this discussion article—is: what is so specific about the skill-set you may have identified?
Clinically, the industrial paramedic must be able to expedite safe extrication of the patient, but clearly this necessitates an advanced level of trauma skills, with practised rapid diagnosis and treatment (industrial paramedics work to PHTLS (Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support) ‘Platinum 10’ standards), although much of the work undertaken actually falls into the category of minor injuries and illnesses.
This, arguably, requires a broader skill-set than some, or all, of our colleagues in other fields of rescue/paramedicine.
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports the following industrial injuries in the UK; (based on last available data 2014):
‘155 workers killed annually—equating to three per week’
‘22 500 workers seriously injured per annum—one every 22 minutes’
‘79 000 workers unavailable to work for between 3 and 7 days’
‘16 000 people leave the workforce annually never to return due to harm at work’
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