Emergency Care Practitioner
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An Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) generally come from a background in paramedicine and most have additional academic qualifications, usually at university, with enhanced skills in medical assessment and extra clinical skills over and above those of a standard paramedic or qualified nurse. It has been recommended by the College of Paramedics that ECPs be trained to PgDip or MSc level, although not all are.[1] Evidence of the best way to target Emergency Care Practitioners is limited with utilisation of traditional Ambulance dispatch codes not always being shown to be most effective[2] and referrals from GPs also potentially failing to deliver management of demand that would be appropriate for this different level of practitioner.[3] Evidence however clearly demonstrates that in discreet groups of patients the use of these extended role staff responding to emergency calls can reduce admissions and thus improve patient outcomes as well as delivering a clear cost saving to the NHS.[4]
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with United Kingdom and South Africa and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (February 2011) |