Being a paramedic is a very demanding job physically and psychologically. We must maintain calm and effectiveness during very stressful situations since we have someone's life in ours hands in critical calls we receive.
We respond to various medical emergencies around the city we are assigned. It could range from someone who broke his finger playing baseball to someone who's critically injured from a car accident. We have the ability to give certain drugs to maintain the patient stable until he gets to the hospital.
On a typical day, we often respond to elders with minor or major medical emergencies. It happens that aged people fall from their height due to their reflexes decreasing with age and causes them to not amortize their fall and causing them to break their pelvis.
In Quebec, paramedic companies are separated in regions. The most common one is the company called Urgence-Santé. It is assigned to oversee the city of Montreal and Laval, the two most populated cities in the province. We also have another company called CETAM which is assigned to oversee the region of Longeuil, another major region in the province.
To become a paramedic in Quebec. It is required to obtain a college diploma in Emergency Paramedic Care in a CEGEP that offers that program with more than 2000 hours to complete this course. Once you graduate from college, it is required to pass a theoretical and practical exam of the National Intergram Clinic Program - NICP (PNIC - Programme national d'intrégration clinique) to obtain a paramedic license. Once registered in the program, you may apply in the preferred company and complete an interview within and officially become a paramedic in Quebec.
The starting salary of a paramedic in Quebec ranges around $23/h. It may increase with night and evening shifts and overtime. The highest will range around $35 with the same bonuses mentioned previously.
Knowing that medicine evolves all the time, new techniques needs to be thought even to qualified paramedics. So, it will happen that paramedics have to follow mandatory formations to be able to use new tools that are offered to them. For example, the apparition of a LUCAS, a machine that offers cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) automatically. In order to use these devices, we must have completed the formation. Another kind of additional training will be to pass the emergency vehicle theoretical exam that is offered at SAAQ in Quebec in order to be able to drive the ambulance.
A paramedic will always confront different kinds of dangers. For example, during a hostage situation with police officers involved if they manage to control the suspect, and he is currently injured, we will have to provide medical aid to this person knowing he might attempt to hurt us. Another example would be for a person with a mental illness that may involve violent reactions and even lethal like a schizophrenic person seen with a knife thinking that everyone is trying to kill him. We would have to approach patients with these kinds of attitudes.
The probability that robots replaces paramedics are very low. The human-human approach while someone is in distress is very important. The ability to calm him down make him trust the paramedic is not possible with the robot technology yet. However, it is possible that robots take over certain tasks that are given to paramedics. For example, driving the ambulance, having an AI may or not increase the chances of accidents during emergency driving. Also, robots have taken over in some places and in certain scenarios, like doing CPR with the use of the LUCAS by certain companies.
The age that paramedics retire is around 55 years old according the prehospital association of Quebec. That is an acceptable age knowing that paramedics must be in a constant decent physical form on a daily basis to correctly perform their duties and at a certain age is simply not possible and will only increase the risks of injuries at work.
In conclusion, being a paramedic is a very challenging job. It is also seen as an underpaid job in the province of Quebec for the job it actually involves compared to other medical jobs.
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: government
Date: still relevant
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Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: government
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: government
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources