As mentioned before, EMS mainly comprises of different people who are skilled and specially trained for medical emergency situations. These types of medical personnel include: 1. Emergency Medical Technicians- they are often called EMTs and undergo various types of training that depends on their current job. They can be dispatchers, who answer distress calls of calls for help and instruct ambulances and other rescues vehicles to respond to the area of emergency (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008).
They also possess a wide variety of emergency medical skills such as oxygen therapy and defibrillation. 2. Emergency Registered Nurses- they are the ones who provide patient care similar to the one provided in the hospital. They usually ask the patient questions regarding his or her problem and determine the next step to be taken. Emergency Nurses can also administer IV lines and other drugs if necessary while working hand-in-hand with a Paramedic (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008).
3. Paramedics- they are basically EMTS who undergoes the highest level of training and possesses a wider array of emergency medical skills. While in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, they can perform various medical procedures on patients such as intubation, cricothyrotomy (emergency incision), cardiac monitoring and cannulation, which is the ability to administer a wide range of drugs including the highly sensitive ones such as morphine (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008).
In addition, they use a radio to receive instructions from a doctor who can be at the base headquarters of the paramedic or the hospital emergency room (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008). 4. Emergency Doctors- usually the doctors who are part of the EMS have a certain specialization and are specially trained for the care and treatment emergency patients. The type of patients that the doctor attends to in an emergency include people who suffering from severe injuries or accidents and people who suddenly have a heart attack or very high fever (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2008).
Emergency Doctors are highly essential especially in extreme medical emergencies as they possess a full range of medical skills such as drug prescription and surgical knowledge that are beyond the knowledge and skills of emergency nurses, paramedics, or EMTs. More often than not, the police and fire department also become part of the EMS especially if a person needs to be rescued from a fire or from incidents that can potentially involve violence and loss of life like a hostage situation, among others.