Community Resilience Ambulance Service

Question: Discuss about the Community Resilience for Ambulance Service. Answer: Introduction: In Australia, communities that reside in rural areas get inequitable health services compared to those that live in cities and the surroundings. In case of an emergency and a patient(s) requires urgent life-saving medical attention, mostly what they get is slow or no response. There is a serious and long-term problem with recruitment and retention of rural health workers, and of importance, paramedics (O'Meara, et.al, 2012). When it comes to saving someones life, paramedics act as the first line of defense; their services are, therefore, vital and should always be quickly available. There has been a variety of responses in a bid to solve this issue, the leading being the emergence of healthcare models whose workforce roles are flexible. The models also include Expanded Scope of Practice (ESP) paramedic roles (McPherson, et.al, 2006). As the worlds population grows, rural areas experience an increase in the demand for emergency departments; Australia is no exception. Australias rural settlements have been experiencing a decrease in the number of home visits by medical practitioners, a factor that is driving the ESP for paramedics dialogue (Ruest, Stitchman, Day, 2012). Another concern that has affected the activities of paramedics in the rural areas is the fact that paramedic is still an emerging profession; local people who need their help, therefore, dont easily trust them. The efficiency and capability of paramedics in the rural areas need to get honed. Every last person who requires the urgent and life-saving attention of a paramedic gets it promptly and efficiently. Communities are not well engaged and therefore do not acknowledge the paramedics extended scope of practice. When paramedics continually interact with their local communities, the people understand their role well, and the limit of the services they provide; the people also have firsthand information on how to contact the paramedics in case of an emergency (Stirling, et.al, 2007). The government should ensure that a good number of paramedics are continually on location in the rural areas; where need be, they should be paid hardship allowances to boost their morale (Dussault, Franceschini, 2006). With proper implementation of the ESPs, the paramedics would get to significantly increase the response capacity of the community and, thus, promote the heath of these communities (Mulholland, et.al, 2009). With appropriate paramedic engagement, the rural communities would get more closely linked to ambulance services, a challenge that paramedics face (Jackson, 2011). The number of ambulances should be increased to match the rising demand. A paramedic can arrive in time to attend to a patient, but the lack or delay of an ambulance to transport the patient can prove the paramedics efforts futile. The second major setback is the clinical response expected of the paramedics in the rural areas. There is a strong argument that for effective dealing with the emergency cases encountered, rural area paramedics require an array of traditional paramedic skills. The ESPs require implementation in all rural areas to link communities to other available and more advanced healthcare services such as the use of air ambulance (Blacker, Pearson, Walker, 2009). The role of paramedics is usually seen by many, including some paramedics, as majorly that of responding to emergencies (Cooper, Grant, 2009). Such attitude creates a barrier to the introduction of new roles that are supposed to lead to enhanced health care among residents of the rural areas. Also, compared to urban centers, rural areas have less workload; concerns, therefore, arise on the difficult in maintaining existing paramedic staff and the worth in introducing more skills in such areas. The third challenge has to do with the extension in the scope of the practice of paramedics. It is a modest step that would complement the roles of other health professionals in the rural setting, and even fill service gaps. The services of paramedics are an excellent option when doctors are unable to provide after-hours service, and in small isolated communities where doctors are absent (Sullivan, Francis, Hegney, 2008). The extension bid gets however challenged by things like job insecurity among nurses who feel that the paramedics may lead to their retention. The fourth issue is the insufficient continuous education for the paramedics to learn new skills, and also how to use new devices that are technologically advanced. All of the above challenges need to be addressed via ESP models to enable paramedics locally and across the world perform their tasks efficiently. References Blacker, N., Pearson, L., Walker, T. (2009). Redesigning paramedic models of care to meet rural and remote community needs. 10th National Rural Health Conference (pp. 17-20). Cooper, S. J., Grant, J. (2009). New and emerging roles in out of hospital emergency care: a review of the international literature. International Emergency Nursing, 17(2), 90-98. Dussault, G., Franceschini, M. C. (2006). Not enough there, too many here: understanding geographical imbalances in the distribution of the health workforce. Human Resources for Health, 4(1), 12. Jackson, A. (2011). Community resilience: what significance does it have for an ambulance service?. Journal of Paramedic Practice, 3(9). McPherson, K., Kersten, P., George, S., Lattimer, V., Breton, A., Ellis, B., ... Frampton, G. (2006). A systematic review of evidence about extended roles for allied health professionals. Journal of health services research policy, 11(4), 240-247. Mulholland, P., OMeara, P., Walker, J., Stirling, C., Tourle, V. (2009). Multidisciplinary practice in action: the rural paramedicits not only lights and sirens. Australasian Journal of Paramedicine, 7(2). O'Meara, P. F., Tourle, V., Stirling, C., Walker, J., Pedler, D. (2012). Extending the paramedic role in rural Australia: a story of flexibility and innovation. Rural and Remote Health, 12(2), 1-13. Ruest, M., Stitchman, A., Day, C. (2012). Evaluating the impact of 911 calls by an in-home programme with a multidisciplinary team. International Paramedic Practice, 1(4), 125-132. Stirling, C. M., O'meara, P., Pedler, D., Tourle, V., Walker, J. H. (2007). Engaging rural communities in health care through a paramedic expanded scope of practice. Rural and Remote Health, 7(4). Sullivan, E., Francis, K., Hegney, D. (2008). 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