Medics from the New Zealand Army assisting a rest home resident. The resident was being transferred onto a Boeing 757 and evacuated from Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Royal New Zealand Air Force and New Zealand Army personnel check on rest home residents who are being evacuated from Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Air Security team carrying a rest home resident onto an air craft. The resident is being evacuated from Christchurch after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Photograph captioned by the New Zealand Defence Force, "The NZ Defence Force helps out after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. HMNZS Canterbury arrives back in Lyttelton Harbour after a very fast return trip to Wellington to resupply".
Photograph captioned by the New Zealand Defence Force, "The NZ Defence Force helps out after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. HMNZS Canterbury arrives back in Lyttelton Harbour after a very fast return trip to Wellington to resupply".
Photograph captioned by the New Zealand Defence Force, "The NZ Defence Force helps out after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. HMNZS Canterbury arrives back in Lyttelton Harbour after a very fast return trip to Wellington to resupply".
St John Ambulance personnel preparing an oxygen mask while standing over a stretcher loaded with medical supplies. Behind them, emergency personnel can be seen searching the ruins of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building on Madras Street for trapped people. Over their heads, a member of the Fire Service in a cherry picker is spraying water on the fire burning in the building. Smoke is billowing from the building.
A St John Ambulance personnel preparing an oxygen mask while standing over a stretcher loaded with medical supplies. Behind him, emergency personnel can be seen searching the ruins of the collapsed Canterbury Television Building for on Madras Street for trapped people. Fire Service personnel have sprayed a jet of water onto the fire burning in the intact section of the building. Smoke is billowing from the building.
A video of a presentation by Dr Erin Smith during the Community Resilience Stream of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "A Qualitative Study of Paramedic Duty to Treat During Disaster Response".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: Disasters place unprecedented demands on emergency medical services and test paramedic personal commitment to the health care profession. Despite this challenge, legal guidelines, professional codes of ethics and ambulance service management guidelines are largely silent on the issue of professional obligations during disasters. They provide little to no guidance on what is expected of paramedics or how they ought to approach their duty to treat in the face of risk. This research explores how paramedics view their duty to treat during disasters. Reasons that may limit or override such a duty are examined. Understanding these issues is important in enabling paramedics to make informed and defensible decisions during disasters. The authors employed qualitative methods to gather Australian paramedic perspectives. Participants' views were analysed and organised according to three emerging themes: the scope of individual paramedic obligations, the role and obligations of ambulance services, and the broader ethical context. Our findings suggest that paramedic decisions around duty to treat will largely depend on their individual perception of risk and competing obligations. A reciprocal obligation is expected of paramedic employers. Ambulance services need to provide their employees with the best current information about risks in order to assist paramedics in making defensible decisions in difficult circumstances. Education plays a key role in providing paramedics with an understanding and appreciation of fundamental professional obligations by focusing attention on both the medical and ethical challenges involved with disaster response. Finally, codes of ethics might be useful, but ultimately paramedic decisions around professional obligations will largely depend on their individual risk assessment, perception of risk, and personal value systems.