ALS Paramedic --> Med Tech Scope of Practice

[Badner]

Hey there internet,

Currently employed with BC Ambulance Service as a Primary Care Paramedic on Vancouver Island.

Will be starting ACP training through the JI in Victoria in Sept. 2014.

Was thinking of joining as a reservist med tech, and was wondering how scope of practice would carry over once licensed as an ACP.

Also, how will my prior training and certification have any bearing on rank once enlisted.

Thank you.

 

[mariomike]

Was thinking of joining as a reservist med tech, and was wondering how scope of practice would carry over once licensed as an ACP.

Some discussion of that here:

Will I still be allowed to practice up to my current skills and abilities/be granted extended parameters? Or will I have to retard my skill set down to that of a standard med-tech?

http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/105231.0.html

 

[ArmyGuy99]

Badner,

This has been discussed many times.  Try a search next please.  Luckly, I'm on RTW due to my MEL's and I'm sitting at home trying not think about eating my two children for dinner (just joking).

Our Scope of Practice is decided and delegated by the Surgeon General of Canada, through various steering committees and groups.  Your civilian PCP/ACP/CCP quals do not matter for scope of practice.

That being said, here's the confusing part..............

As you are interested in the ResF I'll keep the info to that and exclude the RegF stuff;

Because you are PCP Qualified, once you have completed your basic trades training (QL3/4) you will be given the designation QL4 Enhanced and allowed to work within the full Junior MedTech Scope of Practice (same as us RegF guys/gals), which is basically your BC Protocols plus a few more items and some more trauma stuff.  This also opens up more options for going on taskings and deployments (only ResF MedTech's with Paramediccert can deploy as a Medic).

If you didn't have your PCP then your scope of practice is severely limited.


As for having ACP.  Hey it's great for your civi job, but that's about it.  But, no education or experience is wasted ever, us RegF take a course on our 5's that's almost similar, called the AEC (Advanced Emergent Care).  I don't think there is an equivalent for ResF. 


Our trade is currently undergoing a review and it will be very interesting to see the end results in a few years.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hunter]

Because you are PCP Qualified, once you have completed your basic trades training (QL3/4) you will be given the designation QL4 Enhanced and allowed to work within the full Junior MedTech Scope of Practice (same as us RegF guys/gals), which is basically your BC Protocols plus a few more items and some more trauma stuff.  This also opens up more options for going on taskings and deployments (only ResF MedTech's with Paramediccert can deploy as a Medic).

This is factually incorrect.

First of all, non PCP-qualified reserve medics are Medical Assistants, not Medical Technicians. RQL4 Enhanced refers to an extension of the RQL4 that was implemented circa 2004 to bring the RQL4 course content in line with the clinical phase of the QL3 med tech course.  The enhancement refers to a condensed block of training that previously qualified QL4 medical assistants had to complete in order to bring their skills into line with the updated course content.

RQL4 + PCP = QL3 Med Tech.

us RegF take a course on our 5's that's almost similar, called the AEC (Advanced Emergent Care).  I don't think there is an equivalent for ResF. 

Perhaps the AEC component includes a few medications and protocols that are above the normal PCP scope of practice, but to state that AEC is almost similar to ACP is not even close to being accurate.

The reality is, there is not much requirement for an ACP scope of practice in the CF.  Most of the medical directives in ALS patient care standards are geared towards popuations that are too old/fat/sick/crazy to get into the CF.  That's not to say you would never see a situation where you might use ALS skillsets, but those would be very rare.