Парамедики в Австралии: обзор профессии и регулирование

Overview of paramedics in Australia
A Paramedic in Australia is a health care professional who holds a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in Paramedicine and is registered with the Paramedicine Board of Australia via the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) As of December 2021, there are over 22,500 registered paramedics in Australia, of which approximately 70% (15,750) work for a jurisdictional service (each of which covers an entire state or territory), and of which 47% of which are female. Paramedics in Australia may undergo further training and complete a Master's Degree to specialise in either Intensive Care or Primary Care medicine.

From 1 December 2018, Paramedicine in Australia became regulated under the Paramedicine Board of Australia (who are supported in their function by AHPRA, the national body which administers the registration scheme), and the titles "Paramedic" and "Paramedicine" are legally restricted to registered practitioners.

All jurisdictional services in Australia utilise clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) to determine a paramedic's scope of practice. Unlike in nursing and medicine, adhering to the CPGs is often regarded as pivotal, and new paramedics may be expected to memorise all their CPGs. Cases are routinely audited, and variations from CPGs usually result in a paramedic being formally asked to explain their reasoning behind the variation, and in some cases disciplinary action. Additionally, universities usually use the local CPG as an assessment tool during OSCEs. All 8 state service CPGs are openly available. With the exception of a sharing agreement between Ambulance Victoria and Ambulance Tasmania (where Tasmania pay a nominal annual licensing fee to use Ambulance Victoria's CPGs, which are then modified as appropriate for Tasmanian requirements), CPGs are developed largely in isolation by each individual service.

Australia's primary college for paramedics is the Australasian College of Paramedicine (ACP). In 2019, a group of paramedics founded a subset college specialising in low acuity medicine, the Australasian College of Paramedic Practitioners (ACPP). There is no high acuity medicine college. Unlike in medicine, membership of a college is not a prerequisite to specialisation, and colleges do not authorise training programs nor assess candidates for clinical skills. The role of the colleges is a combination of providing continual professional development (of which 30 hours per year is required to maintain registration with AHPRA) opportunities via education and conferences, advocacy, and funding research.

Paramedics are encouraged to join unions by employers, and union employer bargaining is the primary determinant of Enterprise Bargaining Agreements that determine pay and work conditions. Industrial representation varies from state to state. Registered paramedic unions in Australia include Ambulance Employees Australia (AEA) and the Health Services Union. Unregistered (non Union employee support organisations) include Australian Paramedics Associations (APA), Victorian Ambulance Union (VAU) & Australian Paramedic Association QLD (APAQ).