Welcome to Mobile Paramedics Initiative of Nigeria
The paramedic is a healthcare professional who works in emergency medical situations. A paramedic may be best defined as a medical professional who provides medical care at an advanced life support level in the pre-hospital environment, usually in an emergency, at the point of illness or injury.
History of Paramedics
Early history
Throughout the evolution of paramedic care, there has been an ongoing association with military conflict. One of the first indications of a formal process for managing injured people dates from the Imperial Legions of Rome, where aging Centurions, no longer able to fight, were given the task of organizing the removal of the wounded from the battlefield and providing some form of care.
Services
Paramedics is a health profession focused on assisting individuals, families and communities attain, retain and maintain optimal health, often following acute or sudden onset of medical or traumatic events. These services include:
- Patient Education
- Clinical Problem Solving
- Therapeutic communication
- Treatment on scene or en-route to hospital
- Fire emergencies, prevention and control
- Response readiness
- Training and retrianing of officers for better performance
- Scene management
- Emergency vehicle operation etc.
A new and evolving role for paramedics involves the expansion of their practice into the provision of relatively basic primary health care and assessment services.
Some other areas include aviation medicine and use of helicopters, transfer of critical care patients between facilities. Other areas are, tactical paramedics working in police unit, marine paramedics, heavy urban rescue, oil and mineral exploration teams and in the military.
The medico legal frame work for paramedics is highly dependant on the overall structure of emergency medical services in the territory where they are working. In places where paramedics are recognized as health care professionals registered with an appropriate body, they can conduct all procedures authorized for their profession, including the administration of prescription medication and are personally answerable to regulator. In other places paramedics operate as a direct extension of a physician medical doctor, and practice as an extension of the medical director's license to practice medicine.
