Pre-hospital emergency workers have different job roles, practices, and challenges. But the risk of violence is one thing almost all practitioners has in common, even in peaceful settings.
Despite the potentially serious impact of violence, shared experience, resources and training available has been (and remains) limited.
In October 2016, over 700 pre-hospital emergency workers from 70 countries signed up for the first #Ambulance! exercise to “share experience and document situations of violence”. This initiative was led by Norwegian Red Cross in partnership with the Geneva Learning Foundation and in collaboration with the ICRC and IFRC, as part of the Health Care in Danger project’s Community of Action for Pre-Hospital Emergency Care.
This exercise leveraged the Scholar Approach, developed by the Geneva Learning Foundation. In 2013, IFRC had been the first humanitarian organization to pilot this approach to produce 105 case studies documenting learning in emergency operations.
In three four-week exercises in October 2016, June 2017, and September 2017, participants documented and peer-reviewed 270 incidents of violence face by front-line, community-based health workers.
By June 2017, ambulance leaders had taken over facilitation and coordination of these exercises, volunteering to support colleagues from all over the world.
On 12 July 2017, the #Ambulance! Crew (as they had dubbed themselves) convened to hold formal Commencement Exercises for graduates of the June 2017 exercise. Click here to view the full recording (1 hour 25 minutes) of this event…
Frederik Siem of the Norwegian Red Cross gave the Commencement Address on this occasion.
Reda Sadki shared a few results and outcomes of the Second #Ambulance! Exercise.
#A! Team Leader Dr Hanna Kaade convened the Arabic-speaking exercise participants, recognizing the commitment of a large number of ambulance staff and volunteers based in countries facing conflict and crises.
You may also be interested in this presentation about the first year of the #Ambulance! project by Reda Sadki, at the second global meeting of the Health Care in Danger (HCiD) project in Geneva, Switzerland (17–18 May 2017).
You can also read more about the work of the Community of Action for Pre-Hospital Emergency Care on the ICRC’s Health Care in Danger web site.
