Free Health Dissertations - Communication And People-skills Are A Necessity Within The Job. Good
Communication and people-skills are a necessity within the job. Good communication skills will allow a more accurate assessment of the situation through uncovering what has happened, how many people were involved (injured parties may not always be immediately visible for example a young child thrown from the window of a car in an RTA) or whether there is any remaining danger.
As mentioned earlier, assessing whether danger is present (such as whether people at the scene are armed) is important for both the well being of the patient and the ambulance crew themselves. Being able to talk to people and keep both patients and family or others on the scene calm can make the situation easier to control, and maintaining conversation with a patient can help to retrieve important information that may be needed for their treatment (allergies, name of doctor, next of kin) but also to help keep people conscious which may be important for their chances of recovery. As many emergencies can be the result of a crime that has taken place, the ability to preserve evidence and remember information given by injured parties can be very important (for example, people that die later in hospital may have given important information to others at the scene potentially including the paramedic).
The ability to take control in a situation is also an important quality needed for those working in emergency care. Paramedics may often have to direct recovery efforts in a team that may be made up of different emergency services where workers may not know each other, and where time may be of the essence. Leadership qualities are needed in order that control can be taken over a situation, to ensure that resources are allocated where needed, and that work is not being duplicated.
Alongside the qualities discussed that are outlined in the careers booklet provided by the NHS, it will also be important for paramedics to be good team-players and trustworthy. These qualities are proposed as important due to the fact that paramedics may have to work within environments which are not safe. As a result it would be very important for the ambulance crew (usually comprising an ambulance technician and a paramedic, sometimes and emergency doctor) to trust each other and work well together within situations whereby teams may be forced to rely to a great extent possibly for their own well-being, on their team member (s).
In summary the ambulance service are looking for very specific sort of person that matches the qualities outlines above, in order to perform the very difficult and distressing work involved in the emergency services to the capacity that they do London ambulance service alone receives 3000 emergency calls a day.
References
NHS Careers ‘Becoming a member of the ambulance service: Join the team and make a difference’ 2003
www.asa.uk.net (ambulance service association)
www.londonambulance.nhs.co.uk
www.news.bbc.co.
