Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. They may also be known as a first aid squad, FAST squad, emergency squad, ambulance squad, ambulance corps, life squad or by other initialisms such as EMAS or EMARS.
An emergency medical technician is a medical professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found serving on ambulances and in fire departments in the US and Canada, as full-time and some part-time departments require their firefighters to be EMT certified.
A certified first responder is a person who has completed a course and received certification in providing pre-hospital care for medical emergencies. Certified individuals should have received much more instruction than someone who is trained in basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) but they are not necessarily a substitute for more advanced emergency medical care rendered by emergency medical technicians and paramedics. First responders typically provide advanced first aid level care, CPR, and automated external defibrillator (AED) usage. The term "certified first responder" is not to be confused with "first responder", which is a generic term referring to the first medically trained responder to arrive on scene and medically trained telecommunication operators who provide pre-arrival medical instructions as trained Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD). Many police officers and firefighters are required to receive training as certified first responders. Advanced medical care is typically provided by EMS, although some police officers and firefighters also train to become emergency medical technicians or paramedics.
Advanced Life Support (ALS) is a set of life saving protocols and skills that extend basic life support to further support the circulation and provide an open airway and adequate ventilation (breathing).
Advanced trauma life support (ATLS) is a training program for medical providers in the management of acute trauma cases, developed by the American College of Surgeons. Similar programs exist for immediate care providers such as paramedics. The program has been adopted worldwide in over 60 countries, sometimes under the name of Early Management of Severe Trauma, especially outside North America. Its goal is to teach a simplified and standardized approach to trauma patients. Originally designed for emergency situations where only one doctor and one nurse are present, ATLS is now widely accepted as the standard of care for initial assessment and treatment in trauma centers. The premise of the ATLS program is to treat the greatest threat to life first. It also advocates that the lack of a definitive diagnosis and a detailed history should not slow the application of indicated treatment for life-threatening injury, with the most time-critical interventions performed early.
Nursing credentials and certifications are the various credentials and certifications that a person must have to practice nursing legally. Nurses' postnominal letters reflect their credentials—that is, their achievements in nursing education, licensure, certification, and fellowship. The letters usually appear in the following order:
In the United States, the paramedic is a allied health professional whose primary focus is to provide advanced emergency medical care for patients who access Emergency Medical Services (EMS). This individual possesses the complex knowledge and skills necessary to provide patient care and transportation. Paramedics function as part of a comprehensive EMS response under physician medical direction. Paramedics often serve in a prehospital role, responding to Public safety answering point (9-1-1) calls in an ambulance. The paramedic serves as the initial entry point into the health care system. A standard requirement for state licensure involves successful completion of a nationally accredited Paramedic program at the certificate or associate degree level.
Advanced Emergency Medical Technician - Critical Care (AEMT-CC) is a former Emergency Medical Services (EMS) certification that was unique to New York. The curriculum for AEMT-CC's in New York was similar to that of the national standard EMT-I/99 but with a broader scope of practice. EMT-CCs are fully classified as Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers within New York and are trained in advanced airway management, including intubation, IV fluid administration, cardiac monitoring, cardiac pacing, and both synchronized and unsynchronized cardioversion, and medication usage/administration in adult and pediatric patients.
A certified flight paramedic (FP-C) is a person who has met the advanced certification requirements for flight paramedics established for this designation by the International Board of Specialty Certification (IBSC), a not-for-profit organization responsible for the administration and development of specialty certification exams for critical care professionals. The FP-C exam was the first specialty paramedic certification offered by the Board for Critical Care Transport Paramedic Certification in 2000. This certification is designed for experienced paramedics who have demonstrated advanced knowledge of critical care medicine.
An wilderness emergency medical technician is an emergency medical technician that is better equipped than other licensed healthcare providers, who typically function almost exclusively in wilderness environments, to better stabilize, assess, treat, and protect patients in remote and austere environments until definitive medical care is reached. Despite the term, wilderness emergency medical technician training is available and geared not just to the emergency medical technician, but also the paramedic, prehospital registered nurse, registered nurse, physician assistant, and medical doctor. After all, without an understanding of the applicable gear, skills, and knowledge needed to best function in wilderness environments, including a fundamental understanding of the related medical issues more commonly faced, even an advanced provider may often become little more than a first responder when called upon in such an emergency. WEMT training and certification is similar in scope to wilderness advanced life support (WALS) or other courses for advanced providers such as AWLS, WUMP, WMPP, and RMAP. Unlike more conventional emergency medicine training, wilderness emergency medicine places a greater emphasis on long-term patient care in the backcountry where conventional hospital care can be many hours, even days, away to reach.
Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services is the primary provider of pre-hospital life support and emergency care within Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky. LMEMS is a governmental department that averages 90,000 calls for service, both emergency and non-emergency, each year.
In the United States, emergency medical services (EMS) provide out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care for those in need. They are regulated at the most basic level by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets the minimum standards that all states' EMS providers must meet, and regulated more strictly by individual state governments, which often require higher standards from the services they oversee.
A flight paramedic is a paramedic who provides care to sick and injured patients in an aeromedical environment. Typically a flight paramedic works with a registered nurse, physician, respiratory therapist, or another paramedic. Flight paramedics must have an advanced medical knowledge along with years of clinical experience. Flight paramedics in the United States usually hold certifications such as the FP-C or the CCP-C, while in countries like the United Kingdom, they are typically required to hold a postgraduate certificate in critical care as a minimum, with many holding a master's degree in advanced practice or aeromedical critical care.
The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians is a US certification agency covering prehospital medical providers.
An advanced emergency medical technician is a provider of emergency medical services in the United States. A transition to this level of training from the emergency medical technician-intermediate, which have somewhat less training, began in 2013 and has been implemented by most states. AEMTs are not intended to deliver definitive medical care in most cases, but rather to augment prehospital critical care and provide rapid on-scene treatment. AEMTs are usually employed in ambulance services, working in conjunction with EMTs and paramedics; however they are also commonly found in fire departments and law enforcement agencies as non-transporting first responders. Ambulances operating at the AEMT level of care are commonplace in rural areas, and occasionally found in larger cities as part of a tiered-response system, but are overall much less common than EMT- and paramedic-level ambulances. The AEMT provides a low-cost, high-benefit option to provide advanced-level care when the paramedic level of care is not feasible. The AEMT is authorized to provide limited advanced life support, which is beyond the scope of an EMT.
Emergency Medical Technician is the entry level of Emergency Medical Technician in the United States.
In the United States, the licensing of prehospital emergency medical providers and oversight of emergency medical services are governed at the state level. Each state is free to add or subtract levels as each state sees fit. Therefore, due to differing needs and system development paths, the levels, education requirements, and scope of practice of prehospital providers varies from state to state. Even though primary management and regulation of prehospital providers is at the state level, the federal government does have a model scope of practice including minimum skills for EMRs, EMTs, Advanced EMTs and Paramedics set through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Emergency medical responders are people who are specially trained to provide out-of-hospital care in medical emergencies, typically before the arrival of an ambulance. Specifically used, an Emergency Medical Responder is an EMS certification level used to describe a level of EMS provider below that of an emergency medical technician and paramedic. However, the EMR is not intended to replace the roles of such providers and their wide range of specialties.
Emergency medical services in Sri Lanka is being established using a public/private system aimed at the provision of emergency ambulance service, including emergency care and transportation to hospitals. The Pre-Hospital Care Committee is part of the Trauma Secretariat of the Sri Lanka Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition and was established following the 2004 tsunami. The goal of the Pre-Hospital Care Sub-Committee is “During this generation and continuing for future generations, everyone in Sri Lanka will have access to trained pre-hospital medical personnel, ambulances are available to transport the sick and injured safely to hospitals, complications from harmful or inadequate pre-hospital care is eliminated so physician and nursing personnel at hospitals are delivered patients they are able to professionally treat and rehabilitate back to society as contributing citizens.” Pre-Hospital care is an essential, core component of trauma system.
