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Ambulance Person

Do you want to become a Ambulance Person? Here is some information to help point you in the right direction:

Job Description - Print Page

An ambulance person, or worker, is part of the ambulance crew dealing with emergency calls. The ambulance service also provides non-urgent transport for patients.

• Ambulance care assistants drive non-emergency patients to outpatient appointments, hospital admissions or day centres.
• Ambulance technicians work alongside paramedics as part of the accident and emergency crews. They give patients urgent care and take them to hospital quickly. They also provide hospital transport in complicated non-emergency cases.

Ambulance staff in the National Health Service (NHS) work 39 or 40 hours a week. Ambulance care assistants work regular hours, while technicians usually work shifts, including nights, weekends and public holidays. Most of their time is spent on the road. The work involves handling and lifting patients and heavy equipment.

Salaries range from at least £14,010 a year for a trained care assistant, to at least £19,264 for an ambulance technician.

Ambulance workers should:

•  care about the well-being of patients 
•  have excellent communication skills
•  stay calm under pressure
•  be physically fit and emotionally resilient 
•  work well in a team, and enjoy working with the public.

The NHS employs most ambulance workers. Others work in private hospitals, the Armed Forces and in large industries.

Applicants for ambulance care assistant and ambulance technician jobs must be at least 21 years old, have a clear police check and a clean driving licence, although a maximum of three penalty points can be acceptable in Scotland (some services ask for licences that include sections C1 and D1 categories). Services may ask for at least four or five GCSEs/S grades (A-C/1-3). In Scotland H grades are desirable. Applicants must also pass entry exams.

Most people begin as ambulance care assistants. They may later be selected to train as ambulance technicians. Some ambulance services recruit people straight into technician work. Competition for technician training can be fierce.

Ambulance care assistants have two or three weeks' training. Ambulance technicians undertake a 20 week intensive course, and then work under supervision for up to a year.

Ambulance workers can take further training to become paramedics, or move into management, control room work or training. There are opportunities to work abroad.

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