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Emergency Medical Technician Education in Saudi Arabia: History and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2017

Yassar Alamri Open the ORCID record for Yassar Alamri [Opens in a new window]
Yassar Alamri*
Affiliation:
Canterbury District Health Board, Christchurch, New Zealand Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand New Zealand Brain Research Institute, Christchurch, New Zealand
*
Correspondence: Yassar Alamri, MBChB New Zealand Brain Research Institute 66 Stewart Street Central Christchurch, 8011, New Zealand, E-mail: yassar.alamri@nzbri.org
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Abstract

AlamriY. Emergency Medical Technician Education in Saudi Arabia: History and Challenges. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(6):699.

Keywords

educationEmergency Medical Serviceemergency medical technician
Type
Letters to the Editor
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , December 2017 , pp. 699
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2017 

Dear Editor,

We read the findings by Zakariah and colleagues with great interest.Reference Zakariah, Stewart, Boateng, Achena, Tansley and Mock 1 The Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in Saudi Arabia is one of the first in the Arabian Peninsula. 2 Up until recently, Saudi emergency medical technicians (EMTs) had to train outside Saudi Arabia, as the country had no institution that provided EMS training. In 2002, however, the Emergency Medicine Institute (EMI; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) was established, and since then has been the only recognized program by the Saudi Council for Health Specialties (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) as well as the Saudi Red Crescent Authority (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).Reference Al-Ghamdi 3

The EMI’s paramedic program was developed based on the United States National Standard Curriculum for Paramedics. 4 After being accepted into the program, students have to go through a six-unit course over a three-year period. The unit employs licensed paramedics and instructors, as well as emergency medicine physicians from Saudi Arabia, the US, and South Africa. 4 This training program has been developed to help in producing skilled, knowledgeable, and well-trained EMTs who can respond to any emergency need.

Given the relative infancy of organized EMS in Saudi Arabia, it is vital to reflect on the quality of EMT training and graduates. While formal evaluation of training quality is yet to be conducted, several challenges have been identified in the literature, including students’ perceived lack of confidence, trust, and independence,Reference Alanazi 5 and deficits in EMS coverage of some geographical locations.Reference Hamam, Bagis, AlJohani and Tashkandi 6 Additionally, EMT trainees continue to face such societal challenges as refusal of treatment by patients and/or relatives,Reference Alanazi 5 , Reference Alrazeeni, Sheikh and Mobrad 7 scene congestion caused by bystanders,Reference Alanazi 5 and the high prevalence of cancelled emergency calls.Reference Alrazeeni, Sheikh and Mobrad 7

Until identified challenges are addressed, immediately available resources ought to be prioritized with the goal of producing competent, Saudi-trained EMTs. This is not to minimize the importance of standardizing and evaluating licensing examinations; this, however, should temporarily take second precedence in the Saudi EMS agenda.

Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

References

1. Zakariah, A, Stewart, BT, Boateng, E, Achena, C, Tansley, G, Mock, C. The birth and growth of the National Ambulance Service in Ghana. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(S1):S18-S29.Google Scholar
2. Saudi Red Crescent Authority. SRCA History. 2009. http://saudiredcrescent.com/history.html. Accessed July 23, 2016.Google Scholar
3. Al-Ghamdi, AS. Emergency Medical Service rescue times in Riyadh. Accid Anal Prev. 2002;34(4):499-505.Google Scholar
4. Emergency Medical Institute. About EMI. 2002. http://www.emi.edu.sa/arabic/home.html. Accessed July 23, 2016.Google Scholar
5. Alanazi, AF. Emergency Medical Services in Saudi Arabia: a study on the significance of paramedics and their experiences on barriers as inhibitors of their efficiency. Int J Appl Basic Med Res. 2012;2(1):34-37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Hamam, AF, Bagis, MH, AlJohani, K, Tashkandi, AH. Public awareness of the EMS system in Western Saudi Arabia: identifying the weakest link. Int J Emerg Med. 2015;8(1):70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7. Alrazeeni, DM, Sheikh, SA, Mobrad, A, et al. Epidemiology of non-transported Emergency Medical Services calls in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Med J. 2016;37(5):575-578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed