Training for emergency medical technicians

> Access

• age of not less than 17 years
• physical fitness
• good character
• successful completion of compulsory schooling

> Programme

Module I (training for first-level emergency medical technicians)

Subjects: basic and enhanced first aid; hygiene; legislation relevant for first-level emergency medical technicians; anatomy and physiology; impairment of vital functions and regulatory circuits as well as measures to be taken; emergencies related to various diseases and conditions as well as measures to be taken; special emergencies and measures to be taken; defibrillation by means of semi-automatic devices; knowledge and use of medical devices and paramedical equipment; rescue and emergency services; disasters, major accidents, accidents involving dangerous substances; applied psychology and stress management; practical exercises without contact to patients.

Module II (training for second-level emergency medical technicians)

Subjects: pharmacology; mission strategy; basic and enhanced first aid; hygiene; legislation relevant for second-level emergency medical technicians; anatomy and physiology; impairment of vital functions and regulatory circuits as well as measures to be taken; emergencies related to various diseases and conditions as well as measures to be taken; special emergencies and measures to be taken; defibrillation by means of semi-automatic devices; knowledge and use of medical devices and paramedical equipment; rescue and emergency services; disasters, major accidents, accidents involving dangerous substances; applied psychology and stress management; practical exercises without contact to patients.

Professional module

Subjects: health, labour and social security legislation; professions and institutions in the field of health care; documentation.

> Job description / field of activities

First-level emergency medical technician

Independent and autonomous provision of care and assistance to the ill, the injured and other persons in distress who need medical attention before and after transportation, including proper maintenance and termination of existing infusions on a doctor’s orders; taking and handing over the patient or person attended to in the context of transportation; assistance in crisis situations, including administration of oxygen; competent performance of life-saving measures (assessing, restoring and maintaining vital body functions, defibrillating by means of semi-automatic devices, establishing transportability and transporting the patient if and as long as a medical doctor entitled to exercise the profession independently is not available; an emergency doctor has to be called immediately); performing special medical transports.

Second-level emergency medical technician

Activities of first-level emergency medical technicians; supporting doctors in all measures of emergency and disaster medicine, including care and transportation of emergency patients; administering the medicines required during activities of second-level emergency medical technicians if their administration has been approved in writing by the official in charge of medical care at the institution in question; autonomous care of the equipment, materials and medicines of relevance for emergency medical technicians; co-operation in research.

Professional activities

Der/die Sanitäter/in kann seine/ihre Tätigkeiten ehrenamtlich, berufsmäßig oder als Soldat/in im Bundesheer, als Organ des öffentlichen Sicherheitsdienstes, Zollorgan, Strafvollzugsbedienstete/r, Angehörige/r eines sonstigen Wachkörpers oder als Zivildienstleistender ausüben.

Die Berufsausübung darf im Rahmen eines Dienstverhältnisses zu Einrichtungen (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe Österreich, Malteser Hospitaldienst Austria, Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz, Sanitätsdienst des Bundesheers, Einrichtungen einer Gebietskörperschaft, sonstige Einrichtungen) erfolgen.

> Further opportunities for education and training

Following the programme for second-level emergency medical technicians (Modules I and II), some institutions offer specialised courses for acquiring general emergency qualifications(allgemeine Notfallkompetenzen) ("pharmacology" module; "venous access and infusion module) and special emergency qualifications (artificial respiration and intubation" module).