-
Asked by paramediclife123 to Psychiatry Ward Team, Home Treatment Team, Ed - Mental Health Nurse on 30 Jan 2019.
-
Sheffield Psychiatry Ward Team answered on 30 Jan 2019:
Emma here 🙂
Some of our training in Medicine is similar to what paramedics get, but to be honest they are the experts in pre-hospital care!
In psychiatry, as we are a psychiatry ward, we have limited resources to manage someone’s physical health. For example, we don’t have cannulas and fluids we could give, or all of the physical health drugs you can find in a general hospital. If someone becomes acutely physically unwell and we think it is serious (e.g. a heart attack) we call the paramedics in straight away to save the day! In psychiatry, we often have paramedics come and do stitches for us if someone has self harmed by cutting, so that they can stay in a familiar place with a friendly paramedic (or EMT, emergency medical technician) rather than be transferred to a potentially noise, busy A&E and wait a long time.
-
-
Ed Freshwater answered on 5 Feb 2019:
Sometimes, but only if there’s a physical health problem that needs urgent attention that we’re not trained to deal with.
Comments
Neel - Psychiatrist commented on :
We see paramedics coming to casualty to bring some patients in, but our team doesn’t have much interaction with them. They undoubtedly do a vital job.