As you may know, the Standards of Practice set out the minimum standards in paramedic services. Each regulated member is required to understand and comply with these Standards, but how does this translate in the day-to-day work of EMRs, PCPs, and ACPS?
In an effort to help regulated members understand and apply the Standards to real life situations, we will be sharing scenarios that give context to the Standards and ideas on how to implement this into practice.
The following scenario will attempt to address collaboration.
1.7 Collaboration
A regulated member works collaboratively to facilitate an integrated approach in the provision of quality care. A regulated member demonstrates a commitment to collaboration by:
- Consulting with others and providing a smooth transfer of care when the patient’s needs fall outside the regulated member’s scope of practice/training/competency.
- Communicating appropriately and sharing knowledge and expertise with others for the benefit of the patient.
- Contributing actively with healthcare colleagues to facilitate an integrated approach to care.
- Engaging relevant healthcare providers and the patient to prevent misunderstandings, manage differences and take positive action to mitigate/resolve any conflicts.
- Seeking suitable assistance in provision of care and/or transportation of patient.
Scenario:
Kevin is a licensed EMR working for a fire department that offers medical first response outside of Calgary. He is an active member of the fire department and remains on-call for any medical emergencies in his surrounding community. Kevin is woken from sleep one night for a motor vehicle collision that occurs outside of his community. Kevin heads to the scene of the incident in the fire response vehicle. Kevin is the first medical responder on scene and is advised that an ambulance crew is dispatched as well. Kevin begins to provide patient care to an adult male and female patient who self-extricated from the truck, which appears to have drove into the ditch and rolled.
As Kevin is providing care, 2 more fire department members and the ambulance arrive on scene to assist. The ambulance crew heads to Kevin for a patient update and to assess the need for transport for both patients. During assessment and treatment of the patients, Kevin realizes that some of the needs of the patients are outside his scope of practice, such as the initiation of an IV and analgesia for pain control. This prompts Kevin to proceed to give a hand over report to the incoming ambulance crew, which consists of a PCP (Jordan) and ACP (Shauna).
When delivering the hand over report to the EMS crew, Kevin communicates and shares his knowledge for the benefit of both the male and female patient. After the hand over report occurs, the EMS crew invites Kevin to continue to assist in providing care for both the male and female patient as they both need transport to the hospital. Kevin is willing and able to continue monitoring vital signs for both patients as Shauna (ACP) initiates treatment and Jordan (PCP) initiates transport to the closest medical facility. Once the EMS crew and Kevin arrive at the hospital with the patients, a formal handover report is delivered by Shauna to the hospital staff. She also checks in with Kevin and the patients to ensure that there are no misunderstandings during handover, actively demonstrating collaboration while facilitating an integrated approach to patient care.
In this example, Kevin, as well as the EMS crew, demonstrates their knowledge and adherence to the Standards of Practice, Collaboration (1.7), in which a regulated member works collaboratively to facilitate an integrated approach in the provision of quality care. Kevin demonstrates this by consulting with others and providing a smooth transfer of care when the patient’s needs fall outside the regulated member’s scope of practice/training/competency. Both Kevin and the EMS crew also demonstrate it by communicating appropriately and sharing knowledge and expertise with others for the benefit of the patients. Finally, Kevin, Jordan, and Shauna demonstrate collaboration by engaging relevant healthcare providers and the patients to prevent misunderstandings, manage differences and take positive action to mitigate/resolve any conflicts.