Emergency care assistant | Average UK Salary & Outlook

Emergency care assistants drive ambulances under emergency conditions and support paramedics.

Typical task
Working hours
Attractive values

Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
Document data

Perform emergency medical procedures, such as basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), and other condition-stabilizing interventions.
Manage patients' pain relief and sedation by providing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, monitoring patients' responses, and changing care plans accordingly.
Document data related to patients' care, including assessment results, interventions, medications, patient responses, or treatment changes.
Diagnose acute or chronic conditions that could result in rapid physiological deterioration or life-threatening instability.
Administer blood and blood product transfusions or intravenous infusions, monitoring patients for adverse reactions.
Assess urgent and emergent health conditions, using both physiologically and technologically derived data.
Assess the impact of illnesses or injuries on patients' health, function, growth, development, nutrition, sleep, rest, quality of life, or family, social and educational relationships.
Interpret information obtained from electrocardiograms (EKGs) or radiographs (x-rays).
Obtain specimens or samples for laboratory work.
Collaborate with patients to plan for future health care needs or to coordinate transitions and referrals.
Refer patients for specialty consultations or treatments.
Set up, operate, or monitor invasive equipment and devices, such as colostomy or tracheotomy equipment, mechanical ventilators, catheters, gastrointestinal tubes, and central lines.
Discuss illnesses and treatments with patients and family members.
Distinguish between normal and abnormal developmental and age-related physiological and behavioral changes in acute, critical, and chronic illness.
Collaborate with members of multidisciplinary health care teams to plan, manage, or assess patient treatments.
Assess the needs of patients' family members or caregivers.
Perform administrative duties that facilitate admission, transfer, or discharge of patients.
Provide formal and informal education to other staff members.
Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in acute care.
Treat wounds or superficial lacerations.
Participate in patients' care meetings and conferences.
Participate in the development of practice protocols.
Adjust settings on patients' assistive devices, such as temporary pacemakers.
Prescribe medications and observe patients' reactions, modifying prescriptions as needed.
Order, perform, or interpret the results of diagnostic tests and screening procedures based on assessment results, differential diagnoses, and knowledge about age, gender and health status of clients.
Analyze the indications, contraindications, risk complications, and cost-benefit tradeoffs of therapeutic interventions.
Assist patients in organizing their health care system activities.

Read more about Emergency care assistant

Emergency care assistants typically work around 40 to 42 hours per week.

As a Emergency care assistant you will typically work evenings / weekends / bank holidays.

This occupation tends to be:

Social — Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Investigative — Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve

Read more about Emergency care assistant

* from ONETonline

Average salary
42,800 GBP *
per year

* data taken from the Office of National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Average salary for Emergency care assistant

Big gender gap

55,911 GBP
37,996 GBP

Average salary for part-time Emergency care assistant

Average salary for full-time Emergency care assistant

Showing:

22,304 GBP
21,414 GBP
29,166 GBP

42,800 GBP
37,996 GBP
55,911 GBP

Salary over time for Emergency care assistant

Salary for this role has increased over time

40,832 GBP
40,704 GBP
41,186 GBP
41,760 GBP
42,570 GBP
42,968 GBP
42,800 GBP
43,960 GBP
44,587 GBP

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Future outlook for Emergency care assistants

Balanced outlook

1% yearly wage growth (on average)

Which qualifications do I need?

Find out what you need to know in order to become a Emergency care assistant and the highest average level of education for people in this role.

In terms of people already doing this job:

50% of people in this role have a Diploma of Higher Education or equivalent
39% of people in this role have a Bachelor's degree
7% of people in this role have a Master's degree

You can apply directly for jobs. You'll usually need:

3 or 4 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including English, maths and a science subject
excellent driving skills and current knowledge of the highway code

Some ambulance services may also want you to have experience of working in a patient care setting, ideally in the NHS and with a current first aid certificate.

If you passed your driving test after 1996, you may need an extra driving qualification for larger vehicles and for carrying passengers.

Get the right qualification to begin your journey to becoming a Emergency care assistant

Medicine

What soft skills do I need?

Rise above the competition by brushing up on the 5 most important soft skills you need to become a Emergency care assistant.

Active Listening Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times

Critical Thinking Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems

Monitoring Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action

Reading Comprehension Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents

Service Orientation Actively looking for ways to help people

What technical skills do I need?

Technical skills are programmes, softwares and things you need to know in order to be a successful Emergency care assistant. Check that you know:

Electronic mail software IBM Lotus Notes; Microsoft Outlook

Enterprise resource planning ERP software

Medical software Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR; GE Healthcare Centricity EMR; Medscribbler Enterprise; StatCom Patient Flow Logistics Enterprise Suite

Office suite software Microsoft Office

Spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel

Improve your skills today

Medicine

Integrity Job requires being honest and ethical. Stress Tolerance Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations. Attention to Detail Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks. Dependability Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations. Adaptability/Flexibility Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.

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Emergency care assistant | Average UK Salary & Outlook

Salary statistics

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Future outlook for Emergency care assistants

Emergency care assistant - Your future job?

Which qualifications do I need?

What soft skills do I need?

What technical skills do I need?

Things to highlight for your Emergency care assistant interview

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