UK paramedic becomes first female paramedic to qualify for FPHC list
Vicki Brown has become the first person in the UK 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 Brown 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), which she works for. 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.
Brown joins GWAAC Drs Matt Campbell, Matt Thomas, and Cosmo Scurr on the very short list of people qualified. Since the first registration in 2015, there are only 70 individuals on the list. Just 20 per cent of these are female, which makes Vicki’s achievement even more unique.
Inspiring other paramedics in the country
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.
She found out she’d made it on the Register after an interview with the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care, which is associated with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Brown 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.”
Meanwhile, the East Anglian Air Ambulance is encouraging more women into frontline helicopter emergency medical service roles.