Paramedic

Paramedic job description: Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills | Useful links | Find jobs and courses

Typical duties of the job include:

• driving and staffing ambulances and other emergency vehicles
• responding to emergency 999 calls
• assessing patients, providing emergency treatment and making diagnoses
• monitoring and administering medication/pain relief and intravenous infusions
• dressing wounds/injuries
• using specialist equipment including ventilators and defibrillators
• reading ECG
• transporting patients to hospital and continuing to provide treatment whilst in transit
• providing hospital staff with patient information including condition and treatment
• helping provide patient care in hospitals and other medical facilities
• communicating effectively with patients and their relatives/friends
• teaching and training members of the public to use first aid techniques correctly.

24-hour shift work (including weekends) is usually a standard requirement of the job.

Typical employers of paramedics

The National Health Service (NHS) employs most paramedics, although a number may also be employed by large organisations, or charitable bodies such as St John’s Ambulance.

Jobs are advertised on the NHS Jobs website, via Ambulance Service Trusts and on the Paramedic Resource Centre's job listing page. A list of approved courses can be found on the Health Professions Council website.

Qualifications and training required

To become a paramedic you will need to either take a job as a student paramedic with an ambulance service trust or study for an approved paramedic science course. Course lengths vary from 30 weeks full time to five years full time. Previous experience is not essential, but any gained caring for people (particularly the sick, elderly or disabled) can be helpful.

Key skills for paramedics

• a caring and outgoing personality
• good communication skills
• the ability to make swift decisions and stay calm
• a good level of physical fitness
• navigational skills
• resilience
• stamina

A full clean driving licence and good navigational skills may also be a requirement of the job. You will also need a driving licence that includes the 'C1' category in order to drive an ambulance: if you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 you may need to take a further driving qualification in order to gain this.