Homepage

 

Some background information

EMT professionals are usually the first health professionals to reach and treat a patient with serious injuries, traumas or illnesses. They will be the first responders in cases of accidents, crime scenes, natural disasters and other emergency situations. They will provide in situ care and will also be in charge of transportation (by ambulance usually, by air occasionally) so that patients get the appropriate care in the hospital by doctors and physicians.

These professionals can also work in areas such as wilderness EMS, special operations, special events, hazardous materials, industry safety and quality management.

To become an EMT you have to complete an accredited training program as well as being certified and licensed by the state. This training program varies depending on the level of EMT, starting at basic (EMT-1), followed by intermediate (EMT-2/EMT-3), and finally paramedic (EMT-4).

Common EMT trainingincludes the following:

  • Dealing with medical traumas
  • Cardiac emergencies
  • Patient preparation and assessment
  • Taking vital signs
  • Airway and breathing issues
  • Bandaging and splinting styles
  • Use of basic emergency medical equipment

Advanced training in EMT or paramedic programs can include:

  • Anatomy and physiology
  • Pharmacology
  • Advanced patient preparation
  • Patients with special needs
  • Patients on life support
  • Legal and ethical issues

As can be noticed, ethics isn’t given a very significant place in the training of these professionals and most of them go on to work feeling they are unprepared in this aspect of their training. A 1992 study found that ethical conflicts arose in 14.4% of paramedic responses. Such conflicts may involve informed consent, treatment of minors, research, patient competence, resource allocation, confidentiality, truth-telling, training, disclosure, decision-making, patient relationship and end-of-life limits to treatment. As professionals concerned with ethics, we want to help in this aspect providing additional information as well as a opportunity for dialogue and consultation.

Hopefully, our attempt to provide additional knowledge to EMTs doesn’t go unnoticed and this training starts to be provided during their programs and additional certification training they continue to receive every 2-3 years.

Having such an important role, it is vital that we address the ethical concerns and problems that arise in the situations they are in, specially taking into account their shifts can be 24 hours long, and must be constantly on call, meaning holidays, nights, weekends…it is understandable that in this situation, errors can be made, we want to minimize them as much as possible. We want to shed a light on the problems faced by EMT, starting with the lack of information mentioned previously. Furthermore, although law and ethics should constantly be co… many times, it is not the case and there can be clashes which causes a problem for the technician. As EMTs can be working in rural areas, we must address the problems that come from this situation too as there will be many more ethical dilemmas.

We believe ethics should be adapted to each profession, in this case, even though EMTs are health providers and essentially do the same things a physician does, they are not in the same situation, and as a result, ethics should be adapted to them, doing something unethical in a hospital can occur of course, but there is an additional pressure placed onto EMTs when family members are usually present and situations are usually stressful.