A paramedic is a specialist with a higher medical education who specializes in providing emergency medical care. Such a specialist can save a person’s life before his hospitalization. They are responsible for complex medical manipulations, in particular, artificial ventilation of the lungs. In addition, the paramedic is able to take and decode a cardiogram, perform hardware defibrillation and other medical interventions. However, their role is sometimes neglected – some claim paramedics cannot perform specific procedures.
In her lecture, Cathy Chidester speaks about the paramedics, their importance, and how they used to be trained. Interestingly, there was special legislation in relation to this profession, which people opposed, and soon it was changed per their request. Each county was supposed to have an emergency medical service (EMS) to access each zone (Lott Education Videos, 2021). She also emphasized the importance of cooperating with hospitals, fire departments, and other facilities to efficiently maintain public health, especially during the epidemic of COVID-19 (Lott Education Videos, 2021). Together, they elaborated an effective strategy for treating patients in this troublesome time.
During this medical crisis, she played a leading role in establishing communication between hospitals to provide up-to-date information to them. Her actions were highly vital since the medical facilities did not have to implement the standards of crisis care. Chidester also specified that the majority of paramedics working in her county in Los Angeles, California had a nursing background; thus, they could perform medical assessments (Lott Education Videos, 2021). She also raised an issue of vaccination which petrifies the majority of the population. There are many debates about whether somebody can make people put a mask on in order to protect others.
Notably, she paid attention to the importance of providing oxygen to people infected with coronavirus and how they trained the staff to be flexible to assist as many individuals as possible. The whole team is working on the projects regarding training the paramedics and their ability to assess patients legally so they do not have to wait in hospitals (Lott Education Videos, 2021). EMS workers must know how to conduct a basic medical assessment. The main idea developed in the lecture is that paramedics can perform various roles to improve the efficiency of the entire healthcare system. However, some paramedic services are underfunded, making their work unproductive (Lott Education Videos, 2021). In addition, some of them do not have access to medications, and it complicates the difficult situations when a patient needs a drug right away.
I especially like the introductory part where Cathy Chidester explained when the EMSs were developing and how a paramedic could master any other healthcare profession. Additionally, I was astounded to hear about the hospitals’ actions during the first surge of the pandemic. It is also surprising how she could coordinate the information flows between the healthcare organizations. I would highly recommend the department to ask her back for another lecture because she is increasingly informative and knows much about the historical background of paramedics. Her involvement in the projects she is working on and her attempts to make changes in legislation are impressive. More remarkable is her approach to the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic and her participation in mitigating the working processes of healthcare facilities in the county. Ultimately, the lecturer raises crucial issues in the field and provides a very logical explanation of them.
Reference
Lott Education Videos. (2021). Cathy Chidester 14 OCT 2021 large [Video]. Web.