Peter is a newly qualified paramedic who has recently joined your ambulance service after gaining his qualification in another state. You have been working with Peter for a couple of months and have found the experience difficult. He tends to be a poor communicator with both patients and other health care professionals. He is often defensive of his practice and decisions he had made in the care of his patients. During the course of one rotation you have had several incidents with Peter which have you worried. On one occasion he miscalculated the dose of midazolam for a fitting patient. On another occasion he performed chest compression too shallowly and quickly. On a third case he seemed to judge that a hypoglycaemic patient was just intoxicated. You were able to correct the errors on each occasion, but you do not have much confidence Peter. When you try to discuss the cases he becomes very defensive and will not effectively engage in the discussions. He claims that you are finding fault excessively with his work.
Explore the issues, policies and how this conduct should be managed.
