Today’s correspondent says:
I thought I’d reach out about a Facebook post I saw this morning from Safety and First-aid Education Tasmania. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19DJC1WiJB/
It reads:
“A few days ago two of our staff received a request via the responder app to attend a cardiac arrest nearby. There was no hesitation. It was less than a minute away. CPR commenced, IV inserted and defib attached. AT arrived several minutes later working together the end outcome positive with pt gaining ROSC [Return of spontaneous circulation] and taken to hospital and ICU via angiography. It goes to show the validity of early intervention in an out of hospital cardiac arrest and the benefits of having public responders attend to cases reducing the down time and start treatment.
I was wondering if you were in a position to talk about inserting an IV as a Goodsam responder. My understanding is that it would be unreasonable to have IV access. Although it does help with ALS response, my understanding of Goodsam is CPR and Defib only. Am I mistaken?
Yes, you are mistaken. The GoodSam app is an app, designed to notify people who have been enrolled that someone nearby needs assistance. It in no way defines the person who responds ‘scope of practice’ nor should it. The Ambulance Tasmania sign up page (https://www.goodsamapp.org/TAS) says
The expectation is that responders who are not registered healthcare professionals will not provide care beyond basic life support (hands-only CPR and AED use).
That may be the ‘expectation’ but it doesn’t mean they cannot provide further care if they are trained and have the skills. Further, it says with respect to health care professionals
AHPRA registered healthcare professionals are responding in a voluntary capacity and are only expected to provide chest compressions and use an AED.
But that simply means if that is all they do, that’s fine, not that they cannot do more if they have the skills and equipment. Safety and First-aid Education Tasmania say they are a ‘team of qualified health care professionals’ (http://www.safetas.com.au/main/index.php/services) and they’re in the emergency medical sector, not say podiatrists. There is nothing in the law to say that a person at the scene of an emergency cannot use the skills and equipment that they have to deliver treatment that is indicated by the patient’s condition and within that person’s normal scope of practice. Any law or expectation to the contrary would be ridiculous.
Conclusion
The GoodSam app, and its use by Ambulance Tasmania do not define a person’s scope of practice other than to say all that is ‘expected’ ie it is sufficient, to do no more than CPR. But if you can do more, why wouldn’t you?
For related posts see https://australianemergencylaw.com/?s=goodsam
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Australian Emergency Law 
Firstly I applaud any professional health care professional who registers with GoodSam and responds to assist their community. I feel obliged to add that the application of Hi Performance CPR is highly demanding, both physically and cognitively! It’s been well established that any individual’s ability to perform compressions at the correct depth, rate, release and in a consistently correct position for more than two continuous minutes is unlikely. Even with two health professionals, working as a well trained and experienced team the priority is the application of hi quality CPR. Application of an AED must not interfere with the performance of hi quality CPR. There can be no justification for any actions that distract or interfere with exceptional CPR especially attempting to achieve IV access and especially in the absence of drugs used in ACLS. First responders must focus on what research has proven to make a difference in survival. Hi performance CPR and after that early defibrillation. NOT IV access. Remember every element is important and there is no room for egos in the chain of survival.
We don’t know the circunmstance or what IV they were establishing, but the ‘about’ page says they are ‘a ‘team of qualified health care professionals’ so I think we should give them the benefit of assuming that they knew what they were doing and why they were doing it.