A week or so ago we started looking at careers in the healthcare sector that fall outside of the most famous ones–your doctors and your nurses especially–for the benefit of the many young people out there who want to work in this most noble of industries but whose skills and talents may well be suited better to one of these less well-known roles.
Today we continue examining this area by profiling the roles of emergency call handler.
The men and women who take calls round the clock from people who’ve suffered accidents or injuries are often overlooked by the public–perhaps because we never see them–but unquestionably perform a hugely important role. Getting the vital information from the person in distress or the member of the public calling on their behalf and then passing that information on to a paramedic team is something that, if done calmly, quickly and accurately can be the difference between a life saved and a life lost.
There are two key strands to this role. The first main duty is fielding calls from members of the public, during which the operator gets all the crucial information from the caller, and use this information to give further advice to the caller.
The information gathered is then used to carry out the second duty of the role, namely making a decision on what type of assistance needs to be sent out, and taking the steps to get it sent out there. This is a more complex task than it may first sound; the dispatcher has only a limited amount of information, and needs to make sure the level of help sent out is neither too little nor too much. In other words, sending out a paramedic helicopter for a person who’s fallen down in the street probably isn’t going to be the most appropriate response.
Sometimes a single individual carries out both of these responsibilities, whereas in other cases they either just handle calls from the public or decide what response to send out.
As you’ll no doubt have guessed from this outline of the role–and especially if you’ve ever experienced a serious medical emergency–this is not a role for people who crumble under pressure. It requires being able to calmly offer advice and be able to communicate with people who are in extreme distress.
On the other hand, this is one of the few careers within the healthcare sector that involves both working directly with patients–unlike the many administrative jobs in healthcare–but does not require scientific qualifications. So if you’ve always wanted to help sick people but haven’t quite got on well enough with chemistry and biology, this could be a good career choice for you. In fact, there isn’t really a set post-GCSE qualification required for this career, though that doesn’t mean it’s a job that doesn’t require skills or expertise, with computer proficiency, clear communication, handling pressure and an ability to quickly analyse information and make decisions are all being central elements of this career.