Active armed offender: A novel clinical practice guideline for pre-hospital care in Ireland

Incidents involving pre-hospital clinicians responding, or being caught in, active situations of those armed with knives and guns are rising in Ireland. These high-profile and high-stress situations require prior planning to minimise loss of life and maintain the safety of paramedic staff. Better situational awareness has been identified by veteran paramedics involved in active armed offender incidents as a key priority in preventing assault of staff. This novel proposed Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for the Pre Hospital Emergency Council (PHEC) Ireland is based on existing similar guidelines in Australia. This CPG combines pre-hospital emergency guidelines with established tactical medicine principles from the military and police services worldwide. This CPG seeks to minimise harm to clinicians as well as inform them of appropriate clinical priorities while operating in an unsafe situation