Frontenac Paramedics seek community volunteers for medication safety exercise

Frontenac Paramedics are looking for volunteers to represent patients and their families at a routine working group exercise that will examine the management and administration of medication.

According to a press release from Frontenac County, the working group is “all about ensuring that Frontenac Paramedics continue to handle medication for patients as safely as possible and according to the highest professional standard.”

Called the Medication Safety Self-Assessment (MSSA), the project is designed by experts at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada to support the evaluation of the safety of medication management processes in the pre-hospital and paramedicine environment, according to the County. The process of completing the MSSA is intended to identify areas of focus for quality improvement and enhancement of safe medication practices. MSSA results can be combined with learning from the review of incident reports to support continuous quality improvement, the County explained.

“This exercise is important for ensuring that paramedics have the best and latest knowledge about medications and the best practices for managing them,” said Marc Goudie, Frontenac Paramedics Deputy Chief of Performance Standards and MSSA lead. “The perspectives of patients and families is an important and required component, so I hope you’ll consider applying to volunteer.”

According to the release, volunteers will represent patients and their families for two in-person working group sessions. The group includes paramedics, paramedic leaders, hospital medical staff, pharmacists, and others. Patient family volunteers need not have expert qualifications, but should have some personal experience or insight associated with pre-hospital medication. The County said it is especially eager to meet volunteers who have been treated and transported by Frontenac Paramedics, or who have close relations to those who have, as patient and family perspectives are a “critically important” part of the exercise.

Session details:

• When: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Friday, Oct. 6, and 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
• Where: Frontenac Paramedics temporary headquarters at the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) building, located at 1641 Perth Road in Kingston.

Eligibility requirements:

• Must be 18 years of age or older
• Must be available to attend both sessions
• Must have an interest or some insight into management and administration of pre-hospital medication
• No formal training or experience is required

Read more about these sessions, and sign up to participate on the Frontenac County website.