Definition: Paramedic Job Description

What are the ambulance driver’s missions? What training courses to follow to exercise this profession? What are his outlets and his salary? The answers are provided to you by this ambulance driver job description.

Ambulance profession

Accessible without a diploma, the ambulance profession is one of the most chosen professions in terms of retraining professional. Discover it in detail: mission, training, salary, opportunities.

What is an ambulance driver?

Profession which does not know the crisis, it is close to 2,000 people who are trained each year in the profession of ambulance driver. The latter can work in a public, associative or private structure, day or night and may be required to work weekends and public holidays. Pay attention to do not confuse it with the stretcher bearer.

Responsible as a priority to drive people requiring care (injured, disabled, sick, elderly, etc.) to a medical center: hospital, clinic, medical home,… the ambulance driver must also be able to provide first aid.

The ambulance driver is responsible for taking care of the patient from the home, place of accident or care center to the vehicle. During the journey, he ensures the comfort of the patient and is ready to give first aid. Throughout the journey, he remains in contact with the staff of the medical establishment.

In addition to driving, he must ensure that the various administrative documents (hospital, social security, etc.) are kept, collect the receipts and have a good knowledge of the main routes to be taken.

If he has the C or D license, he may be called upon to drive van type vehicles in addition to a VSL (light medical vehicle) In a vehicle, the paramedic is always accompanied by another person, often a auxiliary ambulance driver.

Finally, the ambulance driver is responsible for the maintenance of his vehicle, strict compliance with hygiene rules and the sterilization of equipment.

Ambulance driver missions

• Ensure the transport of injured or sick people to the hospital;
• Ensure their comfort and state of health;
• Master medical assistance devices;
• Know how to drive quickly but surely;
• Provide first aid when needed;
• Maintain your vehicle;
• Complete administrative documents.

Qualifications required to become a paramedic

Practice the profession of ambulance driver requires many qualities. First of all, you must necessarily be a good driver to know how to adapt to the state of health of the person he is transporting (smooth and slow driving or emergency driving with the use of a rotating beacon).

A profession that is practiced in an emergency, he must know how to show composure, responsiveness and vigilance while knowing how to reassure and comfort patients.

Finally, with a sustained pace of work, good physical and mental resistance is essential.

What training is needed?

For become an ambulance driver, the follow-up of a diploma training is compulsory in order to acquire the essential knowledge. Several solutions are available to you, accessible both in the context of initial training and that of continuing training, allowing easy professional retraining as an ambulance driver.

Initial training

DEA: State diploma in ambulance

To become an ambulance driver in France, it is imperative to have the DEA (State diploma of ambulance driver) which is acquired following the validation of a training of approximately 2 to 4 months. During this period, 8 teaching modules are followed including emergency procedures and care, hygiene, health transport safety.

This paid training is accessible with a 3rd level and is provided by private or public centers approved by the State.

However, you must have had a driving license B for at least three years, an up-to-date medical certificate of vaccination, as well as a prefectural certificate of aptitude for driving an ambulance.

Access to this training is through written tests (French and arithmetic) and then by an admission oral.

AA training: paramedic

To become an ambulance attendant, you simply have to follow a 10-day (70-hour) training course offered by the IFA (Ambulance Training Institutes). This training covers hygiene, ethics, medical transport rules and emergency procedures and care (AFGSU level 2).

The number of places is limited, it is necessary to have held the B license for 3 years and to have the prefectural authorization to drive an ambulance to access the training.

State-certified ambulance and auxiliary ambulance training are payable but you can obtain funding.

Continuing education

As part of a professional development or reorientation, it is possible to become an ambulance driver through continuing education by preparing for the state diploma of ambulance driver.

Professionals in activity can also evolve thanks to these training courses by choosing, for example, to take care of a certain type of public (pediatric, psychiatric). They can also take additional training to join a mobile emergency and resuscitation service (SMUR).

Finally, ambulance attendants who wish to reorient themselves towards the profession of nursing assistant are exempted from the entrance examination for training as well as from certain teaching units.

Salary of an ambulance driver

The salary of a beginner ambulance driver is around 1,425 $ gross per month to reach over the years 2,000 $ gross. However, this amount can vary greatly between companies.

On his own account, an ambulance driver can expect higher remuneration but will have to subsidize a vehicle that meets the requirements of the profession.

Where to work as a paramedic?

This healthcare professional can exercise as well in the private than in the public whether in hospitals, clinics or retirement homes.

The ambulance profession can evolve towards the supervision of a team, the organization of action plans in the field for large-scale operations or the regulation of a care structure. His role is no longer the same since he manages the movements of a team, establishes everyone’s schedules and takes care of calls and requests for intervention.

The ambulance profession can also evolve into other branches through short training courses to become stretcher bearer or caregiver for example.