ABSTRACT
Paramedics working in forensic healthcare face a discourse between their advanced skill set and a reduced and atypical paramedic scope of practice generating moral and ethical dilemmas.
Using structured case studies, this Chapter reviews the difficulties paramedics encounter balancing the Quality Standards specified by the Faculty for Forensic and Legal Medicine for nurses and paramedics, and the professional standards defined by the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) with whom they are registered.
The College of Paramedics work on updating the paramedic scope of practice to include ‘’Profession Wide’ as well as “Individual” scopes of practice is reviewed and links between this and the HCPC Standards of Proficiency for paramedics are addressed.
Moral and ethical tenets are reviewed in relation to paramedics facing the double bind of being qualified to deliver care which their atypical scope of practice precludes them from undertaking. Duty of Care and negligence are discussed alongside the key issues of harm, vicarious liability and Bolam Standards to support Paramedic Forensic Health Professionals in undertaking safe and evidence-based clinical decision making in the Forensic Healthcare environment.
