Paramedic speaks out about strain of ‘hallway medicine’ on front-line workers

A Nova Scotia paramedic is speaking out about the conditions his profession is facing as paramedics are all too often caught up in 'hallway medicine.'

A Nova Scotia paramedic is speaking out about the conditions those in his profession are facing as paramedics are becoming essential to “hallway medicine” amidst a strained health-care system.

Scott Sturgeon, an advanced care paramedic, has been with Nova Scotia Emergency Health Services for 23 years. In that time, he’s seen dramatic changes to the job, including a growing problem with offload delays at the province’s emergency rooms.

“I’ve seen colleagues and done it myself where I’ve gone in (to the ER) with my first patient on a run of a 12-hour shift and stayed in the hallway with them for 12 hours,” he said.

What’s even more shocking, he says in some cases, is that he’ll “hand off” the patient to a night crew and then “sometimes inherit that very same patient again 12 hours after that.”

This form of so-called hallway medicine is leaving paramedics like Sturgeon with what he describes as “moral injury.”

“To hear something of an acute nature, of an emergent nature, go out and not have there be any resources, not to be able to do anything about it — it’s difficult for us to handle,” he said.

Not only is it difficult mentally, but physically as well.

Paramedics are being faced with a growing increase in calls, which leaves them no time for personal care.