Role
Community first responders are there to provide assistance to those with a medical emergency, and most importantly to start and maintain the chain of survival in cardiac arrest patients until a fully equipped ambulance arrives. The schemes were originally envisaged for rural areas where emergency medical services response is likely to be delayed beyond the approximate 8–10 minutes during which a cardiac arrest is likely to become irreversible. The schemes have since expanded to more populous areas, where the benefit of early intervention can still prove life saving, and the volume of people available to ambulance control assists them with meeting response time targets such as ORCON.
Examples of first responders include "co-responders" (police or fire service), members of staff of a shopping mall or other public place, members of a first aid organisation, lifeguards, community first responders, and others who have been trained to act in this capacity. Employees of the statutory ambulance services may also act as first responders whilst off-duty.
Read more about this topic: Community First Responder
Famous quotes containing the word role:
“Nothing is ever simple. What do you do when you discover you like parts of the role you’re trying to escape?”
—Marilyn French (b. 1929)
“Our role is to support anything positive in black life and destroy anything negative that touches it. You have no other reason for being. I don’t understand art for art’s sake. Art is the guts of the people.”
—Elma Lewis (b. 1921)
“The traditional American husband and father had the responsibilities—and the privileges—of playing the role of primary provider. Sharing that role is not easy. To yield exclusive access to the role is to surrender some of the potential for fulfilling the hero fantasy—a fantasy that appeals to us all. The loss is far from trivial.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)