Hello to all

[netcarepara]

Howzit guys and girls. I am a paramedic in cape town south africa and found this forum to be educational, and it will be nice to meet you all and get to know bout you and your experiences. cheers and hope to hear from all ya!

 

[Jay114]

Welcome to you! One of the best things about this forum is that folks are from so many different places. I look forward to hearing any stories or thoughts from you as well!

 

[Asclepius]

Greetings. I think it would be fascinating to hear about how things work in EMS in Africa. I am sure it is very different than the U.S.

For instance, do you have different levels of prehospital training like we do here? Basic, Intermediate, Paramedic? What does your training consist of? Do you function under the supervision of a medical director as we do here? Is Capetown an English province or African?

 

[netcarepara]

Greetings. I think it would be fascinating to hear about how things work in EMS in Africa. I am sure it is very different than the U.S.

For instance, do you have different levels of prehospital training like we do here? Basic, Intermediate, Paramedic? What does your training consist of? Do you function under the supervision of a medical director as we do here? Is Capetown an English province or African?

Howzit, I don't know to much of the EMS structures in Africa as such as the various countries are exceptionally different in there skills and extent of service provision. In South Africa we operate with the three tiers of care as you have described. BLS is a basic qualification taking about 5 weeks full time covering basic anatomy and physiology, it focuses attention on CPR, and basic assessments. they are able to administer O2, activated charcoal, Entonox, Glucogel. They are supervised practice and generally supervised by ILS or ALS.

The ILS qualification takes 6 months full time allowing them to independently obtain IV access, Give crystalloids and colloids, give the BLS medications as well as beta 2 stimulants, atrovent, dextrose 50% IV. Both BLS and ILS may only perform basic airway management techniques.

ALS can be achieved by moving from ILS up by completing 10 months of training, they are Critical Care Assistants. Or the best way is to complete a national diploma or bachelors degree in emergency medical care, This coarse takes 3 to 4 years full time and extensively covers anatomy, physiology, pathology, management subjects, ethical and law subjects, advance medical rescue, and others.
ALS can perform numerous advanced airway techniques from placement of ETT's, Alternative airways, and surgical airway access; we can obtain IV access by peripheral lines, External jugular or femoral access and IO access, we also carry a fairly extensive number of drugs ranging from bls and ils med's to adrenaline, amioderone, promethazine, midazolam, diazepam, and a number more.

We do have Medical Officers which are doctors specialized to some level in prehospital care however do not require their permission to perform any of our skills or administer any of our drugs as we are registered as Independent practitioners. thus the long extensive training as all our decisions have to be clinically justifiable should it be questioned. We usually contact the dr's for advice if there is a borderline situation and we are not 100% sure of the best interventions. In Netcare 911 this system is very much in place and our patient forms are looked over by a panel of dr's and the necessary questions asked. in the government service there are some problems with the system.

Haha, No Cape Town is not an African language area as such, if it were I would never be able to communicate. South Africa is very mixed in languages in all cities the main language is English but people speak what ever they are comfortable at, in some of the country side there is heavy Afrikaans and or possible various african languages.

What does the american training levels cover? How does your protocol systems work? do you work closely with a medical director? what skills and drugs do you carry?
:unsure: