Level of legal defence of a paramedic in practice

Members of the ambulance teams of Emergency Medical Services are increasingly becoming victims of assaults by patients, their close relatives or passers-by. Many of them does not end with only verbal threat or insult, but also with direct physical confrontations that affect not only the quality of pre-hospital care provided, but also the physical and psychological state of the crew members. On the contemporary risk of reprisal attacks aren't members of the Emergency Medical Service adequately prepared, equipped and mainly protected by law. Emergency Medical Service occupies a specific position with respect to powers and duties, which means to the level of legal protection in the same position as the basic components of the integrated rescue system. The theoretical part deals with the current level of legal protection of paramedic in practice. The beginning of work briefly defines and characterizes pre-hospital emergency care, which is the subject of daily activities of Emergency Medical Services. The analysis of laws listed the competencies of paramedic, then analysis of rights and obligations during the provision of pre-hospital care, but also offered a view of the recent changes in the legal protection or outlined the legal inequalities in Integrated Rescue System. The work also defined the risks of field emergency work and causes of aggression, which is causing attacks. The theoretical part is closed by chapter dealing with the consequences of the attacks themselves, which are taking their toll on the quality of pre-hospital care and the physical and mental state of paramedics. Introduction of practical part is dedicated to the processed statistical surveys. For the verification of research questions and for meeting the objective of this thesis was done supporting statistical surveys in order to determine the frequency of attack of paramedics in the individual regional emergency medical services in the period from 2010 to 2014, i.e. since amendment of the Criminal Code, which changed legal protection of paramedics. The aim is to evaluate the legal protection of paramedics in providing pre-hospital care and propose measures to improve its protection. The chosen research question determines what resources can be used to enhance the protection of paramedics For the practical part of the work was used the Region of South Bohemian, which was used for the qualitative method of data collection using structured interviews and subsequent analysis of data. Data collection was done through structured interviews and the sample consisted of 10-attackedparamedics in all regional centres of Emergency Medical Services in Region of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Český Krumlov, Jindřichův Hradec, Písek, Prachatice, Strakonice and Tábor. As the respondents' answers fixation method was used audio recording, followed by transcription of the audio into written form. By summarizing data obtained from structured interviews was carried The SWOT analysis based on the comparison of the internal and external environment in order to evaluate the legal protection in practice. From the percentages of the individual areas of the SWOT analysis has been chosen, for the needs of the work, WO strategy, which is aimed at eliminating weaknesses using the opportunities. From the apparent results of the level of legal protection, which is also demonstrated by the worsening prognosis of processed survey in the practical part from which is monitored an increase of attacks were in response suggested means to increase the legal protection of paramedics, which aim to minimize attacks on outreach EMS crew