Advanced Paramedic Practitioners

Primary care is dealing with an ever-increasing workload. The causes are multifactorial but include a decreasing number of General Practitioners (GPs), combined with increased numbers of patients with multiple co-morbidities and an ageing population. As a result of these pressures nursing and allied health professionals are now working within a growing number of advanced practice roles delivering community-based care. One such example is paramedics taking up advanced roles within General Practice settings in Northern Ireland. 
 

We have 3 Advanced Paramedic Practitioners who work within the Southern Federations and they use their paramedic skills to work in collaboration with the other members of the multidisciplinary team assessing, diagnosing, treating and referring or signposting patients as appropriate and prescribing within boundaries of competence and protocols. 

As highly proficient practitioners, they provide care and treatment to patients presenting with undifferentiated urgent and unscheduled care problems and also at times manage patients in their home.