Ambulance

Ambulances and Ambulance Paramedics

An ambulance is used to take sick or injured people to hospital.

Ambulance paramedics drive ambulances and treat sick and injured people at the place where an accident has happened and on the way to the hospital.

A fast moving ambulance flashes warning lights and has a loud siren.

An ambulance can be a van, a helicopter, an aeroplane or a boat.

To make an emergency call for an ambulance in Australia: dial 000 and ask for AMBULANCE

Inside the ambulance there is a bed and medicines, and equipment that the paramedics use to help injured and sick people.

Ambulance paramedics respond to triple zero calls and provide life saving medical treatment at the scene of an accident, or on the way to the hospital.

In the back of the ambulance is the patient compartment. There is a bed that is removable.

Equipment carried onboard the ambulance helps the paramedics find out what is wrong with the patient. Splinting equipment is used to keep injured or broken arms, legs, and the spine (backbone) still. There are bandages to control (stop or slow) bleeding and dress (clean) wounds to stop infections.
One piece of equipment is the defibrillator. If a person's heart stops, the paramedics use the defibrillator to help get the patient's heart beating again. There is other equipment to keep patients breathing, or that breathe for a patient who has stopped breathing. During the fast trip to the hospital paramedics watch patients carefully to maintain the patient's breathing and heart beat.

Paramedics use equipment to keep a patient breathing

Ambulances must be able to communicate with other emergency vehicles such as police and firefighters, as well as with hospitals. A radio is used to do this. The paramedics can contact the hospital and alert them to their arrival and to the condition of the patient so that hospital staff can be prepared.

Onboard the ambulance there are computers too. Ambulance drivers use them to look at maps to find the address of where an accident has happened or where a patient lives.

Upon arrival at the hospital the paramedics hand over the patient to hospital nurses and doctors, telling the hospital staff what treatment they have given the patient.

Air ambulances are either helicopters of planes. Air ambulances can travel quickly to places far away or hard to get to. The helicopter ambulance can land on the roof of a hospital or at a helipad close by.

Ambulances have been used since ancient times. Long ago people used wagons and carts to wheel injured people away from battlefields. Some, like this one used about 150 years ago, were pulled by horses

If you use any of this information in your own work, acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thomas, Ron and Sydenham, Shirley. Ambulances and ambulance paramedics. [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2011)

Please contact kidcyber if you find broken links etc. that need repair.

us@kidcyber.com.au