Emergency Care Practitioners - Statutory Regulation and Professional Support
There has been a great deal of discussion with Skills for Health and the ECP leads group on the subject of registration and professional support for the developing Emergency Care Practitioner. The BPA have always supported the development of Emergency Care Practitioners and through our website and other arenas we have given an honest and open view of the progression for this part of your profession and its impact on further scope of practice and patient care. The following article is written to give a direct perspective on the view and support from the BPA on this important development.
The British Paramedic Association has described the concept of the Emergency Care Practitioner as "an exciting and futuristic adventure into patient care" We fully support the concept of the ECP and the professional impact of the ECP role has had very positive results, in that job satisfaction and the of practice for ECPs has broadened their clinical skills and experience for the wider benefit of the patient and the profession.The BPA has since 2003 amended its' constitution to engage ECPs as full members. Changes to to memorandum and Articles of Association were approved by the membership, at the 2003 Annual General Meeting
The concept of separate regulation for ECPs is very much at the centre of discussion with a wide group of stakeholders. The registration of ECP's as a separate profession is widely felt not to be the best move either for the ECP or for the wider protection of the public. We believe there have been many responses to the Foster review giving this view particularly by other professional bodies and key stakeholders. The risk to Paramedics and other professionals taking separate registration will be that they might need to be dual registered or face having to give up their primary (Paramedic) registration to become a registered ECP. The sensible way forward and enabling paramedics or nurses working as ECP's to retain their primary registration would be to have an entry made to the register for licence to practice in the specialism of ECP. This is how the medical and nursing professions are licenced to practice a specialism where scope of practice is extended. The BPA recommends this approach as it is in the best interests of the Paramedic profession by allowing continued registration as Paramedic with a licence to practice as an ECP. Additionally there is the benefit of only having one regulator for the profession without the increased cost and confusion created by distributed or separate regulation. Much debate continues on this subject and the outcome is still uncertain.
Out of the growing BPA membership of 2500, approximately 100 are people (self declared) operating as Emergency Care Practitioners, 4 of whom have a background in nursing. There is no reason to doubt the validity of these practitioners as they have all undergone training and as such would be eligible to apply for entry to a voluntary register or approval for specialist entry to their primary register.
The BPA published a Curriculum Guidance document for your profession nearly a year ago which embraces the ECP as an extension of Scope of Practice based at Degree level. During 2007 it will revisit this curriculum to ensure that the ECP developments continue to be fully represented and up to date with the current thinking and practice of its ECP members.
The BPA has a Research Group and an Educational sub-group.
The BPA will offer a seperate sub-section for Emergency Care Practitioners called the ECP Specialist Group.
They also offer:
1. Professional support to all of their members
2. A scheme for CPD for all grades of practitioner
3. Insurance cover is being negotiated for any work conducted outside the statutory employment of all BPA members.
4. Within their website an independent ECP forum
In line with the vast majority of other professional bodies the BPA do not offer any Trade Union activities as this specialist area is not a part of our role as a professional body. We believe that these two key areas are best kept distinctly seperate but remain in good professional communication with each other.
The BPA through its College are planning at the appropriate time to establish charitable status. This year the BPA will meet the inland revenue requirements to enable tax allowance for the annual subscription and CPD fee if taken. The total amounts to £30.00.
RFF Nov2006
Sun, 26th November 2006