Specialist practice for paramedics: a bright future?

The paramedic profession was officially 10 years old in November—or to be more precise, we have completed our first decade as registered health professionals, which is certainly worth celebrating. It is also an opportune moment to both reflect on what has been achieved and to look forward at what opportunities lay ahead.

Perhaps the biggest single prize that we still need to seize is unlocking the full potential of our profession and this means making paramedics ever more relevant and effective in meeting emerging patient need through the development of scope of practice.

There has been limited and rather fumbling progress here—both in terms of the move from training to education and particularly in respect of the post-registration training where paramedics are providing care to the ever-increasing number of patients with less critical undifferentiated urgent care needs. Nevertheless, much remains to be accomplished and there are both challenges and promising developments in equal measure.