Paramedics Australasia, the peak industry body for paramedics, is leading the push to raise the status of paramedics by moving to professional registration.
Professional registration would have many advantages (see a paper I wrote earlier, with Jason Bendall of NSW Ambulance, ‘The provision of Ambulance Services in Australia: a legal argument for the national registration of paramedics’ in the Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care. It would give paramedics a moveable qualification so that they could move between employers rather than having to ‘requalify’ each time. An employer would know that a registered paramedic has a set of minimum prescribed skills and can be safely entrusted with the care of patients as well as the use of drugs and paramedic technology.
Registration would also protect patients as they would know that a person calling themselves a paramedic has the necessary skills to practice their profession and, in the event of unsatisfactory professional conduct, remedies are available up to and including having a poor paramedic ‘struck off’ the register.
Professional registration would see paramedics join Doctors, Nurses, Chiropractors, Dentists, Optometrists, Osteopaths, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists and Psychologists as independent, recognised health professionals whose status depends on their training and skill, rather than their employment status.
As it stands anyone can call themselves a paramedic and a person employed as a paramedic by an ambulance services loses all their qualifications and their legal authority to apply advanced first aid (eg to use various drugs) as soon as they leave that employment.
For more details on the campaign for paramedic registration, go to the Paramedics Australasia Registration webpage.
Here at the ANU College of Law, a colleague of mine, Ruth Townsend, lawyer, nurse and former paramedic (and that’s the point; she may be a full time academic but she remains as she is admitted to practice as a lawyer, and whilst she maintains her registration she remains a nurse, but she is a former paramedic because, even though she still has the skills and training, she no longer works for an ambulance service and so, is no longer a paramedic. If there was registration she could, if she met the continuing practice standards, also remain ‘a paramedic’.) In any event, Ruth has commenced a PhD looking at the role of paramedics, their move to professional status and what that means, how the law views the paramedic (are they still ‘ambulance drivers’) and what further steps are needed to see paramedics as true professionals.
I’m sure Ruth’s work will make a valuable contribution to the debate and we look forward to seeing her make her mark in this area over the next couple of years.
Michael Eburn
23 March 2012
Australian Emergency Law 
I could stand corrected, however, I have been shown commonwealth book which lists what a qualification can be called. From memory, a “medic” was cert IV. “Paramedic” was diploma and degree. The title term was a definition of title, and not related to a particular service. I think there is too much emphasis on the word “ambulance” to define a paramedic. A nurse is still a nurse even if they are not working in a hospital. Are we re-inventing the wheel based on ego’s, protections of perceived elitist jobs or, in some states, protection of work from other private ambulance companies? I love your articles.
Thanks for your comment Terry. Without a specific reference I can’t confirm what you were looking at but my guess is that it was something to do with the Australian Qualifications Framework (or AQF). The AQF sets standards for education delivery and as you say it would define what qualifications can be called. This would mean a registered training organisation (an RTO) couldn’t offer a course and call it a Certificate of Paramedic Study if the term ‘Paramedic’ was restricted to degree or diploma programs (but see http://www.trainingaidaustralia.com.au/cert-iv-paramedic-training/cert-iv-paramedic-training.html for details of a Cert IV in Paramedic Training).
None of that, however affects what people call themselves. I’m not an RTO so I can’t offer a training program and call it a ‘Diploma of Paramedic Practice’ but I have a first aid certificate and could call myself a paramedic if I wanted to. Compare this to say a lawyer or a nurse. According to the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) s 15 ‘A person must not represent or advertise that the person is entitled to engage in legal practice unless the person is an Australian legal practitioner’ and what is a legal practitioner is defined. Further a person using any of the titles associated with the legal profession (lawyer, legal practitioner, barrister, solicitor, attorney, counsel, Queen’s Counsel, King’s Counsel, Her Majesty’s Counsel, His Majesty’s Counsel, Senior Counsel) leads to a presumption that the person is holding themselves out as being entitled to practice (s 16). So unless you have been admitted as a legal practitioner, it is a criminal offence to call yourself a lawyer or use any of those listed titles.
Equally a person must not use one of the titles to suggest that they are a registered health professional, such as a nurse or a doctor, unless they are in fact registered (Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) s 113).
There is no similar protection for the use of the term ‘paramedic’. It follows that a nurse is a nurse even when they are not working in a hospital. A paramedic, to use that term in its traditional way, ceases to be a paramedic when they cease to be employed by an agency that is entitled to authorise them to practice. Their right to practice depends not on their skills and experience, but their employment status. It is to change that situation that Paramedics Australia is seeking to have paramedics join the list of registered health professionals. Until that happens the answer to the question ‘who is a paramedic’ is ‘anyone who wants to call themselves one’.
For further information see my latest post on ‘the usage of medication and procedures as a paramedic outside of employment‘ and also the paper written by Jason Bendall of NSW Ambulance and myself on ‘The provision of Ambulance Services in Australia: a legal argument for the national registration of paramedics’ (2010) Vol 8 Iss 4 Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care Article Number: 990414
Regards
Michael Eburn
I have, over the past 8 to 10 years, been approaching politicians and NMRB and providers about rpl for QAOs. I am told that as we are not allied health professionals this is not possible. Who do we contact to fight our cause?
Hi Peta, without meaning to adopt their cause, the obvious people to contact are Paramedics Australia who are leading the campaign for paramedic registration in which case paramedics would become ‘allied health professionals’.
Regards
Michael.