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Eric, et al
Well said in it's context. If I may let's change
the bounds for a minute to one a little more narrow.
In some areas of the states there is a shortage of
Paramedics, so the Advanced EMT ( EMT -I) is being used to supplement and or
replace the Paramedic. Most medics aren't really keen on that . You'd may say
"can't blame them as they are being replaced with providers of less education /
experience ". Will the outcome this
action be detrimental to patient care? etc. My point here is not to belabor
that issue but to illustrate that RNs may feel the same way when you see
Paramedics in the hospital setting. The same arguments are advanced there
also. Ah but here is where it gets to be apples and oranges for many reasons, a
few of which I may touch on. Maybe time for a little parallelism.
(Let's assume for a moment the variable X is
the number of years that you the reader would like it be.)
X years ago, while this occupation was new,
our work and contribution to medicine was minimalized. In the view of the
other medical occupation(s) we were good to move patients around, cleaning
equipment, doing other assigned tasks. We received our training ( education)
mostly in the hospitals (as they were) of this time. As time
progressed our education moved from the clinical environs to the academic
arena, where college degrees in our chosen occupation
came about. This was in part to recognize we developed a body of
knowledge that was our own, we also recognized that this was keystone to a
profession and desired to be acknowledged as such by the other member(s) of the
medical profession.
As the reader I'm sure that you find that this
thesis is familiar. If not, this is a synopsis of the earlier years of nursing
* and the mature paramedics will see it as their own also. * (
At least this is the interpretation I made from Professional Strategies in
Nursing class, "I passed")
A interesting aside to this issue can be found at
http://www.ncems.org/pdf/Joint_Position_Paper.pdf .
I am sure that it wasn't easy getting the BON and the EMS folks together on this
one. Being a student of outhouse law, I believe
this can be considered a precedent.
Bottom line - Two different professions, one not so
old and one relatively new, having sibling agruements.
Jim Kendrick
Flight Crew Person
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