first responder
{{Short description|Trained emergency personnel}}
{{for multi|the emergency medical level of training|Certified first responder|the TV episode|First Responders (The Unit)}}
File:Car accident at Tung Chung Eastern Exchange.JPG in Hong Kong]]
File:Scottish Ambulance Service First Responder vehicle.jpg nontransporting EMS vehicle, referred to by markings on the vehicle as a "first responder" vehicle]]
A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency. First responders typically include law enforcement officers (commonly known as police officers), emergency medical services members (such as EMTs or paramedics), fire service members (such as firefighters, search and rescue members, technical/heavy rescue members, etc) and Public Works employees such as Heavy Equipment Operators as well as Public Works Tree Department personnel. In some jurisdictions, emergency department personnel, such as doctors and nurses, are also required to respond to disasters and critical situations, designating them first responders; in other jurisdictions, military and security forces may also be authorized to act as first responders.
In a medical context, certified first responder is an individual who has received certification to provide pre-hospital care in a certain jurisdiction. A community first responder is a person dispatched to attend medical emergencies until an ambulance arrives. A wilderness first responder is trained to provide pre-hospital care in remote settings who has skills relevant to ad hoc patient care and transport by non-motorized means. Public Works departments are also recognized as First Responders as they are generally called to clean up natural disasters, plow snow and maintain roads as well as provide rescue support in extreme weather scenarios.
Etymology
{{original research|part=section|date=September 2023|reason=It lacks a citation in support of the proposition that this was the etymology. These citations only show examples of usage, but don't seem to describe the origin of the term as claimed.}}
The use of the term "first responder" in the current sense first emerged in the United States in the 1970s. Perhaps the earliest uses in print occurred in two articles in The Boston Globe in August 1973, about proposed ambulance regulations in Massachusetts.
{{blockquote|"…any police or fireman who staff a 'dual-purpose' vehicle would have to be trained to offer 'first-responder' care — that is, to stabilize a patient until more sophisticated help arrived."{{Cite news|last=Knox|first=Richard A.|date=12 August 1973|title=Western Mass. foes threaten proposed ambulance regulation|page=37|work=Boston Globe|access-date=}}
"The chances are even better that your emergency call will be answered by a police or fire vehicle doing double duty instead of an adequately equipped ambulance and a paramedic trained in 'first responder' care."{{Cite news|last=Knox|first=Richard A.|date=20 August 1973|title=Emergency ambulance service found wanting in Mass.|page=3|work=Boston Globe}}}}
There were some earlier uses of "first response", though not "first responder", in this sense. They included an article in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in March 1972,{{Cite news |last=Wright |first=Alice |date=18 March 1972 |title=Emergency medical care community responsibility |page=8 |work=The Daily Sentinel }} and another about the formation of a "First Response Group" composed of volunteers in The Burlington Free Press in April 1973.{{Cite news |date=16 April 1973 |title=Volunteers form response group |page=4 |work=Burlington Free Press }}
A few months after its use in the Globe, the term "first-responders" appeared in a Boston Herald article about a master plan for emergency care from the Health Planning Council of Greater Boston. One of the recommendations in the plan, reported the Herald, was that "All ambulance personnel and first-responders (who are general police and firemen) should be adequately trained in emergency care such as cardopulmonary [sic] resuscitation."{{Cite news |last=Langone |first=John |date=11 May 1974 |title=Emergency aid reform told |page=1 |work=Boston Herald }}
"First-responder" was also used in a July 1974 classified advertisement for a deputy chief of EMT training—"to assist in developing and implementing statewide training programs for EMT's and first-responders"—from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.{{Cite news |date=7 July 1974 |title=Office of emergency medical services |page=6 |work=Chicago Tribune |department=Classified Advertising }}
The term began appearing in newspaper articles from other parts of the United States in the second half of 1974, and was in widespread use by 1975. At some point, the dash between "first" and "responder" disappeared.
Specific jurisdictions
{{Globalize|date=October 2022|2=the United States}}
Some jurisdictions have special laws defining and establishing the rights and duties of first responders.
=United States=
File:Amfleet cars and first responders after July 2011 grade crossing accident.jpg
The term first responder is defined in U.S. Homeland Security Presidential Directive, HSPD-8{{cite web | title = HSPD-8, Homeland Security Presidential Directive | publisher = Office of the Press Secretary, The White House | url=http://biometrics.gov/Documents/Homeland%20Security%20Presidential%20Directive%20_%20HSPD-8.pdf | access-date = 2016-12-11}} and reads:
{{blockquote|
The term "first responder" refers to those individuals who in the early stages of an incident are responsible for the protection and preservation of life, property, evidence, and the environment, including emergency response providers as defined in section 2 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 ({{usc|6|101}}), as well as emergency management, public health, clinical care, public works, and other skilled support personnel (such as equipment operators) that provide immediate support services during prevention, response, and recovery operations.
}}
Emergency response providers are defined by {{usc|6|101}} as follows:
{{blockquote|
(6) The term "emergency response providers" includes Federal, State, and local governmental and nongovernmental emergency public safety, fire, law enforcement, public safety telecommunicators/dispatcher, emergency response, emergency medical services providers (including hospital emergency facilities), and related personnel, agencies, and authorities.
}}
Issues
File:Washington Guard works with Thai first responders DVIDS173002.jpg
First responders must be trained to deal with a wide array of potential emergencies. Due to the high level of stress and uncertainty associated with the position, first responders must maintain physical and mental health.Gina Hagler, Careers as a First Responder (2012), p. 59. Even with such preparation, first responders experience unique risks of being the first people to aid those with unknown contagions. For example, in 2003 first responders were among the earliest cases of the previously unknown SARS virus, when they cared for patients affected with the virus.Gregory R. Ciottone, Disaster Medicine (2006), p. 141.
Infectious disease has continued to be a major occupational health concern among first responders with the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC and other agencies and organizations have issued guidance regarding workplace hazard controls for COVID-19. Specific precautions for first responders include modified call queries, symptom screening, universal PPE use, hand hygiene, physical distancing, and stringent disinfection protocols.{{Cite web|last=CDC|date=2020-04-30|title=First Responders, Law Enforcement & Public Services|url=https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/first-responders.html|access-date=2020-07-23|website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|language=en-us}}
= Trauma =
{{main|Trauma and first responders}}
See also
{{wiktionary|first responder}}