Certified First Responder - First Responders in France

First Responders in France

In France, the pre-hospital care is either performed by first responders from the fire department (sapeurs-pompiers, most emergency situations) or from a private ambulance company (relative emergency at home), or by a medical team that includes a physician, a nurse and an ambulance technician (called "SMUR"). The intermediate scale, the firefighter nurse (infirmier sapeur-pompier, ISP), is only a recent evolution and is performed by nurses specially trained acting with emergency protocols; these nurses are the French equivalent of paramedics. The first responders are thus the most frequent answer to emergency calls. In addition, in France there exists a network of first responder associations, as French red cross (croix rouge française), civil protection (protection civile) or others. These CFR volunteers are allowed to supervise massive outside meetings, student fests, etcetera. These volunteers have followed the same special rescuer training as firefighters (PSE 1 & PSE 2, at all 70 hours of training).