The Role and Responsibilities of Paramedics - Term Paper Example

Planning and Preparing to Teach Total Number of Words: 2,016 Introduction Paramedics are groupof medical professionals who provide immediate care for patients within a pre-hospital setting. Paramedics are not only responsible in determining the cause and extent of the heath condition of the victims but also immobilizes extremity fractures and stabilize the patients’ condition by giving them necessary intravenous therapy and life-saving intervention while transporting the patients to the hospital. This study will discuss the role and responsibilities of paramedics when teaching the basic life support such as CPR and first aid within a classroom setting. In the process of going through the discussion, appropriate teaching and learning approaches will be tackled in details followed by identifying some strategic ways on how the paramedics can deliver inclusion sessions to motivate the learners to learn the best technique in managing the patients’ airway. To meet the curriculum requirements, the use of teaching and learning strategies as well as important resources will be discussed one by one. Role, Responsibilities of Paramedics in Relation to Teaching the Students in a Classroom Setting about the Basic Life Support and First-Aid The paramedics has a huge role and responsibilities to meet when teaching the students to conduct basic life support such as the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first-aid techniques when dealing with emergency and life-threatening cases (Hazinski, et al., 2004). Specifically the blood loss that may occur when the victim is seriously injured can lead to cardiac arrest (The American Heart Association in collaboration with the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation., 2000). This situation requires immediate call for ambulance, CPR, early defibrillation (if necessary), and early advanced life support to prevent brain death (Hazinski, et al., 2004; Hickey et al., 1995). By encouraging the students to perform immediate action, paramedics will be able to increase the survival rate of the victim (Robertson, 2000). Obstruction in the patient’s normal airway functioning is a life-threatening scenario since the lack of oxygen that flows in the blood that flows through the human body can lead to end-organ damage, hypoxia, hypoxemia, and high mortality rates. (Eddleston et al., 2006; Levy, 2005; St. John, 2004; Ayus & Arieff, 1995) For this reason, it is crucial on the part of the paramedics to pay close attention with the patients’ breathing pattern during the assessment stage. Given that the patient shows signs and symptoms that there is an obstruction to the patients’ airway, paramedics should immediately establish the patient’s airway as part of the initial management (Mayo-Smith, 1993). The use of airway management is not limited to the obstruction of the patient’s airway, other medical indications that requires airway management includes: cardiac and/or respiratory arrest; failure to protect the patient’s airway; inadequate oxygenation or ventilation; care of the critically ill patients who has multi-system disease or injuries; and the control of airway during surgical procedures which requires general anaesthesia (Kabrhel et al., 2007). Airway management is basically one of the most important components of the adult and paediatric basic life support (BLS). In case the provision of BLS such as adjuncts, positioning, suctioning, and the attempt to use assisted ventilation to a patient is not effective in terms of managing the airway, then there is a need for paramedics to use more advanced intervention like the endotracheal intubation and/or SADs (St. John, 2004). When teaching the students about the importance of basic life support, paramedics should effectively teach the students about the general principles of first aid. In line with this, paramedics should teach the students to immediately control the bleeding in order to prevent the incidence of cardiac arrest and recognize and treat shock, maintaining the airway passage, manage hypothermia and hypoglycaemia among others (The American Heart Association in collaboration with the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation., 2000). Likewise, it is equally important to highlight the need to immobilize the victims’ spine. This will prevent the patient from permanent paralysis (Hazinski, et al., 2004). Asthmatic condition is common to children. In line with this, it is the responsibility of the paramedics to teach the students the proper way of managing respiratory problems. Asthmatic patient may or may not experience difficulty of breathing. Therefore, it is necessary for the students to learn to recognize wheezing and signs of breathing difficulties in asthmatic children (Hazinski, et al., 2004). Before giving breaths to the patient who is already breathless, paramedics should teach the students to keep the airway open to ensure that the air given to the patient will enter the patient’s lungs. Although work-related and transportation accidents can happen, life-threatening emergency cases in adults can either be due to the top ten leading causes of death including malignancy, heart diseases, unintentional injury, suicide, stroke, diabetes, liver disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), respiratory diseases like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma, and homicide as mentioned in the study of Hazinski et al. (2004). To ensure that the patient is breathing and with pulse, paramedics should make it a point that the students would regularly check for the patients’ breathing patterns and the presence of pulse. In line with this, VF and the absence of pulse should immediately be treated with defibrillator – a medical equipment that delivers shock to the heart in order to resume the normal rhythm of the patients’ heart (Hazinski, et al., 2004). Strategic Ways to Deliver Inclusive Sessions that will Motivate Learners to Learn within a Classroom Setting There are many ways wherein paramedics could deliver inclusive sessions within a classroom setting that can effectively motivate the learners to learn the basic life support program including the CPR and first-aid. Use of Computer Lab A good strategy is the use of a computer lab during the class hour. As soon as the paramedics presented the course outline to the students, paramedics could eventually guide the students as they go through the online reading materials which has clear images on how to perform CPR and a long list of first-aid strategies like bandaging before allowing the students to answer computer-generated questions like what will you do if the person next to you has bee sting or snake bite? As a rescuer, is it important to manage the patients’ airway first before circulation or the other way around? This particular teaching technique can effectively motivate the learners to focus on understanding the proper way of performing CPR and first-aid strategies. Since the use of computer lab enables the students to clearly see pictures or videos pertaining the proper way of performing CPR, there is an increased chance that the students could end up learning more than the use of a pure classroom setting teaching without the use of computers. Use of Online Presentation in a Classroom Setting It is also possible to combine the use of the course outline materials with online presentation materials when teaching the students inside a traditional classroom setting. When implementing this type of teaching and learning technique, the students’ learning can be maximized because of the use of online presentation materials. Upon introducing the Web-based paediatric advanced life support course (Web-PALS) and a traditional PALS course to a group of health care providers like the physicians, nurses, paramedics, and respiratory therapists, Gerard et al. (2006) revealed that students considered the use of Web-PALS as a promising educational experience as compared with the use of a traditional PALS course. The positive experience that the students received out of the Web-PALS contributed to higher score on post course cognitive and psychomotor tests (Gerard et al., 2006). Use of Emporium Model in Teaching The use of emporium model in teaching makes the paramedics available online for the students during a specified period of time. This will enable the students to have the privileged to be assisted by the paramedics when going through computer lab. Since there is a two-way communication between the students and the paramedics, the use of emporium model in teaching is better that the use of pure online course alone (Hodges & Brill, 2007). Although students can access the online course requirements during their preferred time, a self-guided online teaching and learning approach may not be applicable to all learners. There are some students who may have difficulty using the Internet. This makes some learners unable to access the online reading materials. Use of Other Teaching and Learning Equipments Since investing on computers can be very costly on the part of the paramedics, the use of other teaching and learning equipments such as the AV equipment, LCD projectors, DVD players, dummies, and computer-based medical simulators are equally useful (Baggaley, Inglis, & Malizia, 2005). Since the number of teaching and learning equipments is limited compared to the number of students who will participate in learning the basic life support and first-aid strategies, it is necessary to divide the students into smaller group as they go through the process of solving problem-based learning. Use Teaching and Learning Strategies and Resources Inclusively to Meet Curriculum Requirements The use of different teaching and learning strategic is possible. The paramedics can still successfully meet the curriculum requirements even with the use of different teaching and learning techniques. Aiming to meet the required curriculum for basic life support program, the paramedics should make use of the same curriculum. Keeping the curriculum unchanged means that the same content will be used by the paramedics in teaching the students the proper way of performing the CPR and first-aid strategies. The only difference between the traditional classroom teaching and the use of a computer lab is that computer lab will require the paramedics to convert the traditional teaching and learning materials into a digital format. Since paramedics can still be physically present to address the specific questions of the students, students will be able to enjoy more flexibility in learning. Based on the teaching and learning strategies that will enable the paramedics to effectively motivate the students to learn the basic life support and first-aid within a classroom setting, converting the existing educational or curriculum program into a more hybrid environment which combines the face-to-face teaching and learning with online access to curriculum materials required the use of a wide-range of teaching and learning resources which includes the availability of curriculum materials, up-dated lesson plans, computer labs, and evaluation techniques. The use of other course materials like the multimedia and improved online evaluation materials also contributes to the effectiveness of paramedics’ teaching approach. To ensure that the use of computer and multimedia equipments does not hinder the teaching and learning process between the paramedics and the students, the instructional team should consist of technical persons who are capable of maintaining the usefulness of these electronic equipments. Conclusion There are many useful and effective teaching and learning strategies that paramedics can choose from. Between a traditional teaching and learning method and the use of computer-assisted programs, the combination of the two seems to be more effective in terms of enabling the students to really appreciate the importance of basic life support and first-aid strategies in saving the lives of people who are in a life-threatening situation. The use of online teaching strategies does not necessarily mean that the traditional curriculum will not be followed. Although it will take time and effort to convert the traditional curriculum into digital form, this teaching and learning strategy is workable. UK paramedics should teach the students not act on pure motive alone. Instead, a group of professionals should consider not only their good intensions but also the probable and actual outcome of their actions when providing temporary care and treatment to the patients. By doing so, the paramedics could prevent further harm to patients who are already facing a life-threatening situation. For instance: Rather than promoting the practice of pre-hospital intubation, UK paramedics should encourage the medical professionals to use of other non-invasive methods when performing respiratory intervention during emergency cases. This will avoid causing further physical harm to the patients. In the end, there will be a lesser chance for UK paramedics to increase the patient’s risks of suffering from hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and/or untimely death aside from other complications like bradycardia, laryngospasm, bronchospasm, and apnea which is possible with the use of tracheal intubation (Kabrhel et al., 2007). *** End *** References Ayus, J. C., & Arieff, A. I. (1995). Pulmonary Complications of Hyponatremic Encephalopathy: Noncardiogenic Pulmonary Edema and Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure. Chest , 107(2):517 - 521. Baggaley, M., Inglis, G., & Malizia, A. (2005). The writing is on the wall: use of an LCD projector to aid communication at the ward round. Psychiatric Bulletin , 29(5):180-181. Eddleston, M., Mohamed, F., Davies, J., Eyer, P., Worek, F., Sheriff, M., et al. (2006). Respiratory failure in acute organophosphorus pesticide self-poisoning. QJM , 99:513 - 522. Gerard, J., Scalzo, A., Laffey, S., Sinks, G., Fendya, D., & Seratti, P. (2006). 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