Air Ambulance Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care breaks barriers

Vicki Brown, Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care at Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, has become the first person in the country to get on the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care (FPHC) Register of Consultant (Level 8) Practitioners by qualifying from a purely, paramedic background. She is also the first female paramedic on the list.

This is an amazing achievement for Vicki and is a wonderful recognition of years of hard work and expertise. This is also a big achievement for the paramedic profession and is great for Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC). Its crew’s capabilities and combined experience as a team are constantly growing and evolving, meaning the best possible care can be delivered to patients.

Vicki joins GWAAC Drs Matt Campbell, Matt Thomas, and Cosmo Scurr on the very short list of people qualified. Other doctors, who completed their training with GWAAC, are also on the register.

Since the first registration in 2015, there are only 70 individuals on the list. Just 20% of these are female, which makes Vicki’s achievement even more unique.

Vicki’s ambitions and desire to be the best she can be in her profession, is helping GWAAC meet two strategic objectives: to act locally to provide an excellent and innovative pre-hospital emergency care service that supplements and supports NHS services; and to impact nationally and influence globally by improving pre-hospital emergency care for the benefit of all patients, identifying effective interventions, promoting good practice, and developing innovative approaches.

On a local level, Vicki is delivering first-class pre-hospital care to patients wherever they are and whenever they need it. And on a national level, her ground-breaking achievement of being the first to qualify with a purely paramedic background, and being the first female paramedic on the register, means she will be an inspiration to other paramedics up and down the country.

Vicki said,

“I’m feeling very proud to have achieved this level and hope other paramedics will follow as pre-hospital medicine is very much multi-professional. I hope this shows that paramedics can achieve this level of practice. I intend to continue pushing the boundaries of paramedic practice and hope there is more success to come.”

Getting on the FPHC Register of Consultant (Level 8) Practitioners, after just 18 months of being appointed the first Advanced Practitioner in Critical Care (APCC) in the South West, is even more remarkable.