Talk:Paramedics in Canada

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I am unsure how accurate this page is for the rest of Canada, however it does not at all reflect the situation in Alberta where we have EMR, EMT-A, EMT-P ("paramedic") levels with training ranging from 2 weeks (EMR) to 2 years (EMT-P "paramedic") I believe out EMT-P would be equivlant to the "ACP" described in this page, however we don't have anything higher (except Doctor) critical care and air transfers often have a doctor on board for that reason.

As of January 1, 2005, BC has three levels: EMR (3 weeks), PCP (3 months) and ACP (12 months). There is also a CCP level, but no one in the province has that level of license. --Andrewjuren 22:15, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I have to say that you are incorrect when you stated that no one in BC has the CCP level of license. My father-in-law was a CCP for 10-12 years, until his death in 2005 and I know that he worked with at least one other, who is still working in 2009. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.52.77.162 (talk) 05:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

The Smiley that was removed.

Why remove it? It was so cute! lol Shanekorte 01:33, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

while I'm sure cute has merrits... I don't think an encyclopedia entry is the place for it... that and the fact that the smiley just didn't seem to make any sense there... at least put it after some irronic comment or something.... ;) Green1 00:10, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Quebec

The lack of paramedics in Quebec isn't mentioned in the article but is a major contrast between Quebec and the rest of North America. I believe it deserves mention.

G. Csikos on 10 November 2006 I do think a break down of scope and treatment level in EMS does deserve mentioning. It's amazing how people think all ambulances crews are the same. JBignell (talk) 23:11, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

PCP 12 Leads?

Regarding the sentance "For example, in the province of Ontario many paramedic services allow Primary Care Paramedics to perform manual defibrillation, 12-lead ECG interpretation ...". Where do PCPs use 12 lead ECGs in Ontario? I'm not saying it's NOT happening, but I'd be surprised if it was. Does anyone have a citation for this? marc at colbeck dot ca

• • • Paramedics in Peel Region have been doing 12 Leads since 2001 and is part of our scope of practice.

EMR EMT-A and EMT-P use LP 12's in my service in Edmonton. But only EMT-P use manual defib from my understanding (will be training next month on it) --68.151.64.34 05:43, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Almost every service in Ontario allows PCPs to do 12-leads. I work for York and Northumberland and we do them in both thoses services. Niagara EMS allows Manual De-fib for PCPs.

This page is too specific

This article has been ammended so much that it might as well be Paramedicine in Ontario. As well, Toronto EMS, and BC Ambulance have their own pages, why have them here as well??? There is already a link to them. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.96.248.60 (talk) 00:21, 12 December 2006 (UTC).

Folks, the title says 'Paramedics in Canada' and is intended as a national overview, which it provides fairly nicely. With respect to the levels described, those included are the approved national levels, and entirely appropriate. If the system does not work in precisely the way described in your province/territory, perhaps the solution is to put the effort into a page describing your own situation (e.g. Paramedics in Manitoba, EMS in Alberta, etc.) or into a page that describes and defines your particular skill level (e.g. EMR or Ambulance Technician, with or without a location). There is certainly room within the project for that level of expression, and you SHOULD be able to tell your own story. Some of these, particularly the evolving situation in Quebec, will make very interesting reading! But when all is said and done, the solution to your concerns is not to change this article; besides, you would NEVER manage to get at to cover all of the realities of Canadian EMS, that's why it is simply an overview. Emrgmgmtca (talk) 10:28, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

"...perhaps the solution is to put the effort into a page describing your own situation (e.g. Paramedics in Manitoba, EMS in Alberta, etc.) or into a page that describes and defines your particular skill level (e.g. EMR or Ambulance Technician, with or without a location). There is certainly room within the project for that level of expression, and you SHOULD be able to tell your own story." - please remember to always keep WP:N in mind - new articles must show notability, 'else they face speedy deletion. _TalkIslander 22:43, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

"This article has been ammended so much that it might as well be Paramedicine in Ontario". I will point out yet again, the levels described in this article are based upon the National Occupational Competency Profile, and most definitely NOT on Ontario or BC. The descriptors for positions are GENERIC. We are no better off than the U.S. in some regards, in that we have ten provinces and three territories which cannot agree on a single uniform set of job titles or training requirements. As a result, the NOCP is the only reasonable way to describe the system. Otherwise, we would need 13 subsets of information; each describing the situation in an individual province or territory, and the article would become massive. Similarly, the skill sets are also generic. Do you have any idea at all how difficult it would be to create an article which went through skill sets province by province and level by level? And in some cases, that would require clarification down to the COUNTY level! The truth is that absolutely NOTHING written in here is likely to be in complete agreement from West Rubber Boot, Saskatchewan, to Fort Nowhere, Nunavut. There will ALWAYS be someone who pipes up, "Oh yeah...nice article...if you're in Vancouver...but you forgot about us, again...and we're important too!" There is an old joke in Canadian EMS about Canadian EMS stations being the only emergency service facilities equipped with their own 'whine cellars'. If the content of an article doesn't reflect your reality, I challenge you...rather than moaning about your reality not being reflected...try writing about it. Nobody understands your situation better than you, and nobody has a better understanding of what is important and what isn't. If you don't feel that you can write high quality articles, put down what you CAN write (it will only get better with practice) and rely on some of the rest of us to help out with editing, formatting and rewriting. That being said, stick to the facts, and maintain a neutral point of view, and try to ensure that you have solid references to back up any opinions. Those of you who absolutely, positively cannot write can make other contributions. These would include maps, photos, and information. Just bear in mind that it must be either in the public domain or used with permission. If you are in Summerside or Brandon or Cornerbrook and you're sick and tired of seeing pictures of ambulances from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver...guess what? In a country where every second person has a camera on their cell phone, those are the only pictures of Canadian ambulances available on the site. We'd love to have pictures of units from New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, or wherever, but if you want them included in the articles with Canadian content, you need to take the pictures of your units and upload them with permission (if you took the picture, we only need YOUR permission) so that they are available to us! While you're at it...take pictures of your EMS staff at work (everybody seems to want to upload pictures of the newest rig, and ignore the real story...the people!). In closing, I will state this position yet again, because it is important...if you are unhappy with something that doesn't accurately reflect the situation in your own province or territory, the solution is not to complain about it on the Talk page. Instead, invest the effort in writing an article about your own jurisdiction that accurately describes the situation and requirements that exist there. You're the only one who can do that...this isn't a dictaphone machine. Don't wait for other people to do exactly what you want...it will almost never happen!Emrgmgmtca (talk) 13:14, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

What about EMR"s???

Considering that I am a Licensed EMR in Manitoba I think that the role EMR's play has been ignored. indeed in Manitoba EMR's form the backbone of EMS. and while Manitoba Paramedics are in favor of increasing standards and education levels, EMR's still account for nearly 25% of Ambulance attendants in rural Manitoba

whi;e i would not call an EMR a Paramedic, we are still publicly called so by our Employers and government. also our uniforms and ambulances say Paramedic on the side

Another phenomenon in Manitoba is that EMR's are now called "Technician"(s) PCP's are called "technician-Paramedic" and ACP's are called "Technician-Advanced Paramedic"

Manitoba health does not recognize the CCP level and any staff who were CCP's EMT-III's or EMT-P's are now demoted to ACP/ Technician Paramedic.

until April of 2006 A/O's or BFA's were still allowed to be hired and until 2009 BFA/A/O's will still be allowed to crew and ambulance. A/O's and BFA's are Basic First Aid attendants/ Ambulance operators. basically Ambulance Drivers only with usually less medical training than your boss in the office.

TheRenaissanceMan 09:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

• Here Here to us unsung EMRs ;)... Aside Alberta uses EMR/EMT/EMT-P for there levels, and don't use PCP ACP etc... here ACP is the Alberta College of Paramedics... Which EMRS are members of... so that kinda says EMRs are paramedics.... sorta... I suppose. --phalcon 05:47, 23 February 2007 (UTC) (UTC)

EMR's should not be on this page. The article is titled PARAMEDICS in Canada, and EMR's are not paramedics. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.45.111.33 (talk) 23:02, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

For what feels like about the fiftieth time...The article is about PARAMEDICS...not EMRs. It's all in the title. Rather than complaining about the fact that someone else's article doesn't cover your reality, because your level of certification is NOT the same as the title of the article (it doesn't read "AMBULANCE PEOPLE IN CANADA....or you'd be right!), why not try actually WRITING an article about EMRs? In the meantime, there are also an awful lot of people getting wrapped up in 'that's not correct, the way we do things where I work is...' It has been stated, at least once previously on this Talk page that the article doesn't deal with individual provincial or territorial certifications. The article deals with the National Occupational Competency Profiles, in which the correct terms are PCP, ACP, and CCP.Emrgmgmtca (talk) 11:22, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Other Notable inconsistencies within Manitoba

“A Primary Care Paramedic is an entry-level paramedic with one year of training” this statement is simply incorrect. It is the preferred minimum. But sadly it is not. Furthermore, the “entry level” is that of the EMR (Emergency Medical Responder). The EMR classroom hours range from 98 to 150. This may not be the case country wide. But EMR’s are employed on ambulances in Alberta and Manitoba and considered to be the entry level. Or as we are now called in Manitoba “Technicians” http://www.gov.mb.ca/health/ems/licensing.html

In Manitoba the course length for a PCP (primary care paramedic) is a minimum of 300 hours. This Minimum is what the Manitoba Emergency services collage (MESC) uses. http://www.firecomm.gov.mb.ca/mesc_courses.html a significant portion of new hires in Winnipeg, the Capital of Manitoba graduate from the MESC Fire paramedic program, which is 300 hours long.

While it is stated that Quebec has only 2 educational institutes for PCP level, Manitoba only has 3 the other courses are offered by WFPS in partnership with MESC so there are only 3 publicly available programs

“Paramedics are seen as health professionals, equal to nurses, respiratory therapists, cardiac perfusionists and others”

This statement cannot be applied in Manitoba.  Paramedics are not officially considered to be health professionals, as they are not self regulated. Hence the Paramedic association of Manitoba’s mission to get Paramedics recognized as a health profession. http://paramedicsofmanitoba.ca/about/role.asp

forgive me for my emphasis on Manitoba, but I don’t have much experience in other provinces and therefore am reluctant to comment on them.

It seems to me that Quebec is not alone in its anomalous relationship to the rest of the country in EMS.

TheRenaissanceMan 14:00, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Emergency Medical Technician page

Hi, any chance I can get someone to write a piece on EMTs in Canada (feel free to include information on PCP/ACP/CCP as well. The page seems to be more of a general "EMS personal" primer page) for the Emergency Medical Technican page? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Technician

Thanks JPINFV (talk) 23:16, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Peelparamedic

An external link by this title was just removed. It was a link to a local union webpage, not a professional association, as was the case with the other external links. Very militant, anti-management, and not the type of link that would be useful to any Wikipedian who didn't actually work for that particular EMS system. As a result, it really didn't belong in here as a reference source. Moreover, this particular title has been deleted previously as non-notable.Emrgmgmtca (talk) 11:28, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

When did Canada start having Paramedics?

What makes a paramedic from the 70's different then a paramedic from the 30's... when you compare them both to a modern professional that transports and treats the sick and injured? I think there should be a discussion around the transfer of name from "Ambulance Driver" to "Paramedic".JBignell (talk) 23:15, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

Salary and employment

I think this should be set up as regional section since rates in GTO are much better then Newfoundland or PEI.JBignell (talk) 21:33, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

This should be titled "Paramedicine in Canada"

It is the correct word. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.7.37 (talk) 16:43, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

EMR Section needs edits

"Under the new NOCP most providers that work in ambulances will be identified as 'paramedics the most prevalent level of emergency prehospital care is that which is provided by the emergency medical responder (EMR)."

That makes no sense and theres an extra apostrophe in there for some reason. I'm not even sure I know what this person was trying to say. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.205.7.37 (talk) 16:46, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

Yes I agree. The 2011 NOCP says "The term "paramedic" as used in this document is inclusive of the four levels, including the Emergency Medical Responder."

I think that section needs a revision because the scope of practice referred to (generally) is only relevant to EMRs in BC. If we're discussing national SOP it's better to stay aligned with the NOCP by PAC. SnoggyTheBear (talk) 01:20, 23 July 2023 (UTC)