Transitioning into a Community Paramedic role within the urgent care setting has been one of the most rewarding and challenging shifts in my career. Unlike emergency ambulance work, urgent care allows for more comprehensive patient assessment, thorough examination and continuity of care. As a paramedic in urgent care, I have learnt so much about chronic disease management, preventative health care and the importance of collaborative team work. While my skillset and primary health knowledge has been broadly enhanced since beginning in this role, I am also able to attend emergencies in the community and call upon my ambulance background for patients who walk in to the clinic with presentations such as chest pain, shortness of breath and traumatic injuries. Our combined model of Nurse Practitioner and Community paramedic is inherently complementary, and as a team we are able to manage emergencies, chronic disease and urgent presentations that otherwise would require transport to hospital. Keeping patients in the rural community is our goal and we have been able to achieve that with the majority of our patients over the past 7 months I have worked in this setting
Our Community paramedic Nick Grant
