Select one of the below scenarios.
Write a brief report which addresses the following:
• Risks
o Outline the risks to patient, paramedics and organisation
• Obligations
o What obligations would you have as a health professional?
(you may refer to unregister or registered health professional policy)
• Strategies
o Outline appropriate methods of managing the problem:
according to typical organisational policy
and/or according to principles of registration
Three pages maximum (plus references)
• References may be appropriate government and professional body web pages.
Professional behaviours report
Scenarios
Professional scenario 1
You have been working for about a year with Brian, a senior paramedic with 20 years of service. You find him to be difficult to talk to and rather abrasive at times. He tends to make you uncomfortable when you hear him talking with patients, relatives and other health professionals. You notice that his case cards are very poorly written and often omit quite a lot of information. You are also uncomfortable about how he talks about females, often being derogatory and occasionally very sexist. He often make offensive remarks about women when he sees them during the day.
Recently, a new female graduate has joined your team. Brian takes every opportunity he has to chat with her and discuss her progress. He offers to help her with extra training opportunities and tries to arrange shift swaps so that he can work with her. You find that he has arranged an evening training session for next week. You are uncomfortable about his motives.
Explore the issues, policies and how this conduct should be managed.
Professional scenario 2
You and Sally have been working together for a couple of years and have generally got on very well. Sally likes to go to parties and often tells you about how drug she got. Lately, you notice that Sally is not taking as much care of her appearance, grooming and uniform as she previously did. Her work has become a little sloppy and her attitude has deteriorated. She is often moody and snappy. One Sunday morning she arrives late for a day shift. She tells you she slept in due to a party she had the night before. She is quite dishevelled and smells of body odour and alcohol. You ask her if she should be at work today, but she tells you to mind your own business. You are concerned about her fitness to practice.
Explore the issues, policies and how this conduct should be managed.
Professional scenario 3
Peter is a newly qualified paramedic who has recently joined your ambulance service after gaining his qualification in another state. You have been working with Peter for a couple of months and have found the experience difficult. He tends to be a poor communicator with both patients and other health care professionals. He is often defensive of his practice and decisions he had made in the care of his patients. During the course of one rotation you have had several incidents with Peter which have you worried. On one occasion he miscalculated the dose of midazolam for a fitting patient. On another occasion he performed chest compression too shallowly and quickly. On a third case he seemed to judge that a hypoglycaemic patient was just intoxicated. You were able to correct the errors on each occasion, but you do not have much confidence Peter. When you try to discuss the cases he becomes very defensive and will not effectively engage in the discussions. He claims that you are finding fault excessively with his work.
Explore the issues, policies and how this conduct should be managed.
Professional scenario 4
Jeremy and you have been working together for years. As a team you have had a good reputation, with many excellent cases under your belts. One night shift you are tasked to a fitting patient. You find the patient to be a known alcoholic who is suffering the delirium tremors. As the patient is still fitting, Jeremy elects to administer midazolam. For some reason Jeremy administers the IM dose of midazolam via an IV route. After the event he acknowledges that this was a mistake. However, he tells you that it would not hurt the patient and there is no need to report the mistake. You are uncomfortable with this decision.
Explore the issues, policies and how this conduct should be managed.
