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Emergency Care Assistant

Working life

As an Emergency Care Assistant (ECA) you’ll work alongside clinicians responding to 999 calls attending every kind of accident and emergency, sometimes covering considerable distances, under normal and emergency driving conditions to get to the scene as quickly and as safely as possible.

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No two shifts will be the same, you might be called out to a road accident victim with multiple severe injuries or to someone who has had a heart attack in a busy shopping centre, you could even be transferring a very sick baby to a specialist centre or dealing with an elderly person who’s fallen down the stairs.

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Under the direct supervision of the clinician, you will carry out essential emergency care, such as controlling severe bleeding, treating wounds and fractures and looking after patients with possible spinal injuries. Before you join our frontline operational teams, you will spend your initial weeks in our education centres where you will be thoroughly trained, leaving you feeling well prepared and confident to manage such circumstances.

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Based at a local ambulance station as part of a team, you will work shifts, going out in all weathers at all hours, sometimes working in difficult conditions, such as in confined spaces or on a motorway.

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As well as your contact with patients, you will also have to deal with relatives and members of the public. In larger or more serious incidents, you will work alongside the police, fire service and other public services.

Ambulance rear

Kim Lunn

Ambulance Care Assistant

" You most certainly need a caring/loving personality for the job as we see and meet different people from all types of backgrounds every day. I have also gained some qualifications along side working for Odessa, the experience for me is hard to explain as everyday is different but I know for sure I love working as an Ambulance Care Assistant and this for me is a career definitely most rewarding and I’m very thankful to Odessa for giving me this opportunity."

Entry requirements

These are some of the essential criteria you will need to be successful as an Emergency Care Assistant; more detailed criteria are available in the Person Specification for the role:

 

  • A valid UK full B category driving licence and full manual C1 category licence with no more than 3 penalty points. Applications will be accepted with a provisional C1 licence but a full manual C1 category licence must be obtained one month prior to commencement of training

  • Maths, English and one other GCSE at grade C or above or equivalent

  • Customer / patient-facing experience

  • Demonstrable working knowledge of dealing with patients

  • Knowledge of the Highway Code (tested at assessment)

  • Good communication skills.

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