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When Thomas chose to become an IHCD Technician, he had no idea how much his view on the emergency services would change. What made you want to take on an IHCD Technician job? I chose to become an Emergency Ambulance Technician because I wanted a job with fulfilment. In my previous job, it just felt like a daily grind that never changes, whereas this job is dynamic and...

Great news! #MedChat - our weekly tweetchat - will be welcoming a new sponsor this week: SP Services: the UK's leading supplier of medical equipment. SP Services supply everything from basic first aid kits and defibs to crisis response kits and ambulance equipment and they've been doing it successfully for the past 28 years. They're the perfect partner to join the #MedChat c...

In this article, where we focus on influential people who are helping to shape the profession, we feature David Cranmer who is the CEO of Medic Now, a specialist recruitment agency providing ambulance professionals to the NHS and private sector on a temporary and permanent basis.   What is your professional background?   I began my career in management consultancy - ...

Charlie Ballam | My life as a locum paramedic Can you give a brief outline of your career to date? I qualified as a paramedic in 2009 and worked full time for the NHS for 2 years in Dorset. I then moved to Australia for a year and a half, where I worked as a remote area medic. Upon my return to the UK, I trained as an Offshore Medic and split my work between offshore dep...

In case you missed the news, Katie Price is considering a career change: she wants to train as a paramedic. Has she got what it takes? Well, maybe. Here’s why... Katie’s got five kids, which makes her a solid multi-tasker. Being a mother – let alone to five children – means she’s used to juggling different needs and most of all, remaining calm under pressure. She’l...

This blog post was written by Matt Green, a paramedic for an NHS Trust. Follow him on Twitter @MLG1611Mid-way through the Sunday shift, the mobile data terminal alerts you and Paramedic Maureen to a `64 year old male Patient keeps falling and can’t get up`. Whilst calls for fallen patients are common (you’ve already done three that shift), Maureen comments this patient is a ...

​Can you believe it’s been nearly two years since we started #MedChat, our weekly tweetchat? We’ve come a long way, thanks to the support of the ambulance community of Twitter who tune in every Thursday night at 8pm to discuss one topic or another. With that in mind, we’ve been looking back over the topics we’ve already covered… perhaps it’s time to revisit some?If you have ...

Thanks to the @PreHospECG team for supplying the questions for this week's #MedChat special on ECG interpretation.If you missed it, sloped off half-way through, or just want to use these questions for your own purposes, here they are -Q1 - What do you find most challenging about ECG interpretation and why?Q2 - What useful resources and/or techniques have helped you to learn ...

This blog post was written by Matt Green, a paramedic for an NHS Trust. Follow him on Twitter @MLG1611 I have done between 20-30 careers fairs and open days to promote the ambulance service. Some events have attracted school leavers and young university applicants, whereas others have attracted a much broader range of (older) people with much more life experience who also...

The new standardised purple uniform for use by UK ambulance trusts rolls out today. The Paramedic Uniform Committee of England (PUCE), which was formed last year, will monitor the success of the core uniform, assist in the development of future specifications, seek out opportunities for standardisation and rationalisation and work with fashion houses across the UK to sou...

This blog post was written by Matt Green, a paramedic for an NHS Trust. Follow him on Twitter @MLG1611The Trauma Care 2017 conference (@TraumaCareUK) was held at Staffordshire’s Yarnfield Park 15-18 March.In total, there were over 26 conference streams and an incredible 200 speakers! Hundreds, if not thousands, of delegates included pre-hospital and in-hospital clinicians, f...

"Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." We’re celebrating our 5th birthday today, so I just want to say thank you to all our hard-working ambulance professionals and loyal clients for making this journey happen.  On 12th March 2012, I took a leap of faith and started MedicNow because I believed ambulance trusts and patients could...

We stumbled upon this marvellous poem on Facebook. It was written by an anonymous LAS worker, explaining why she is proud to wear her 10 year service badge.... Not Just A Badge All the study and tests, the 'just do your best'. The stress, the fears and the hidden tears. The built up frustration. The long cold nights, and sleep deprivation. The no breaks and...

Kirsty Elton is our Business Development Manager, a Yorkshire lass, and a vocal proponent of our Medicnow HALO teams…  Known mostly for beautiful landscapes of green, dry stone walls, tea and of course our ability to chat to anyone... Yorkshire is definitely a beautiful place to live. What you may not know is that like the rest of the country, our Emergency Department...

This blog post was written by Matt Green, a paramedic for an NHS Trust, and originally published on the South East Health Education Blog . Follow him on Twitter @MLG1611 This case study looks at some of the airway complications in end of life care and clinical decision making in the context of a dying person. Also discussed are examples of techniques and medications a pre...

Today is National Stress Awareness Day. Ambulance staff and paramedics know all too well the pressures associated with work-related stress, especially as strain on NHS services continues to take its toll. This post was written by Janos Baombe , consultant in emergency medicine, and published on the St. Emlyn's Blog . DISCLAIMER: the below tips are based on no evidence wha...

Matt Green is a paramedic for an NHS Trust. Follow him on Twitter @MLG1611 “Time of death 1854 hours.” There. You said it. You ended someone’s life. You’re 21 years old, still living with your parents and barely an adult in many eyes but you’ve just welded one of the biggest emotional swords available. They are dead and it’s because you said so. You recently registered...

If you’re thinking about joining Medic Now as part of a PTS team, or as an ECA, Technician or Paramedic, then our assessment days are a great opportunity to meet the team, ask questions and make sure that working for us will work for you. Join us for our next assessment day at Keele University on the 20th of September. If you are keen to find out ways that your career ...

Ralph Chadkirk is a paramedic for an NHS Ambulance Trust. You can follow him on Twitter @rchadkirk  It is inevitable that, at some point in their career, a healthcare professional will make a mistake. We are all human, and we all have the same fallibilities: tiredness, hunger, pressure and cognitive biases. In short, “to err is human”. We hope that if we do make a mist...

​Great news: we’ve teamed up with CPDme and MedTree for a fantastic #MedChat partnership. Your participation in our weekly tweetchat will now be officially recognised by CPDme. Here's how it works: If you’re a #MedChat participant, you’ll receive a specific code each week at the end of the discussion to access the CPDme system. Once there, simply...