UNISON Great Western Ambulance Branch

Endotracheal intubation resources

Although union membership is primarily aimed at improving employment terms and working conditions, UNISON is also involved in representing its members in clinical issues. As well as approving changes to policy, UNISON Great Western Ambulance Branch has members who sit on the GWAS Clinical Forum.

An unprecedented amount of interest resulted in the suggestion that GWAS may remove intubation from the skillset of paramedics. This was prompted in part by a document released by JRCALC, included in the table below. This page contains resources that can be used by you to draw your own conclusions. Please feed back to the Medical Director, the Clinical Forum or yourvoice@unison-greatwestern.co.uk. If you would like to share additional links, or find a link doesn't work, please email us.

JRCALC: A Critical Reassessment of Ambulance Service
Airway Management in Pre-Hospital Care
and
Airway management – JRCALC recommendations July 2008
“paramedic intubation can no longer be recommended as a mandatory component of paramedic practice and should not be continued to be practiced in its current format”

College of Paramedics (British Paramedic Association) updated position paper on paramedic intubation

A comparison of seal in seven supraglottic airway devices

Demystifying direct laryngoscopy

Limited opportunities for paramedic student endotracheal intubation training in the operating room

Out of hospital endotracheal intubation - where are we?

Patient status and time to intubation

Procedural experience with out-of-hospital endotracheal intubation

Simulators and difficult airway management skills

National Occupational Standards: Perform advanced life support for an adult

Gum elastic bougies in difficult intubation

Difficult intubation, the bougie and the stylet