New paramedic course an Australian first

Twenty paramedics from the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) are about to begin the new Graduate Certificate of Rural and Remote Paramedic Practice to help boost health services in isolated Queensland communities.

Speaking at the launch of the course in Cairns last night, Emergency Services Minister Pat Purcell said the initiative was the first of its kind in Australia and it is part of a Beattie Government election commitment to explore an expanded scope of practice for QAS paramedics working in rural and remote areas.

“The Queensland Government is committed to providing all Queenslanders the best possible pre-hospital care, regardless of where they live,” he said.

“From Camooweal out west, to Thursday Island in the Cape, to the border communities down south, the Queensland Ambulance Service delivers an innovative, effective and efficient service to rural and remote communities.

“This is new and exciting ground for the Queensland Ambulance Service and is a key part of our efforts to look for better ways to maximise the clinical expertise of our highly trained paramedics who do such a fine job in rural and remote communities across Queensland,” he said.

“The establishment of this qualification will enable 60 paramedics over three years to develop an extended scope of practice to isolated communities in Queensland, providing greater assistance to rural Doctors and remote area Nurses in the community where they live and work.”

Mr Purcell said the development of the course was undertaken in partnership with the James Cook University Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health and the North Queensland Workforce Unit of Queensland Health.

After completion of the course the paramedics will be classified as Isolated Practice Paramedics. The course will:

- Equip graduates with contemporary skills, knowledge and abilities to complement the isolated health teams;

- Help paramedics working in isolated communities to integrate their pre-hospital emergency care knowledge with low acuity community care;

- Equip paramedics to examine their own community;

- Give graduates an understanding of international and national health strategies, and

- Provide them with a range of skills, drugs and understanding that equips graduates to assist the health team to develop localised strategies.

Media contacts: Tim Shipstone 07 3247 8194, 0409 620 571;
Daniel Landon 07 3247 8992, 0437 837 976.