The first in a series of two podcasts, Joel talks us through the roles, responsibilities, skills and capabilities of the APCC team, where they can be found and why and when we should use them.  

Top tips 

1)   Maintain dialogue with the incoming APCC and make any stand down decisions a discussion 

2)  APCC are not just there for incidents you would consider a red team for, instead think of  them as supporting you with any incidents that perhaps push your own boundaries and you  need some help and support 

3)  When you meet the team, please engage, ask questions, have a look and kit and have a chat,  they are there to support you in any way they can.  

Joel Symonds is an Advanced Practitioner in Pre-hospital Critical Care from Edinburgh.  On leaving school he worked as a nanny, a pyrotechnician, a children’s actor and a civil servant.  He joined the Ambulance Service in 2005 and was promptly told by a burned-out colleague – “The problem with joining the ambulance service is once you’ve become a paramedic there’s nowhere else to go”.  Choosing to ignore this nihilism, Joel has spent his career exploring the opportunities available to staff with pre-hospital management skills.  Since then, he has worked in international motor racing, desert search and rescue, hostile environment industrial health care, governance consultancy, education and research. He is regularly asked where he’ll be in five years’ time: he has no idea, but can’t wait to find out.

Joel has a special interest in human factors, interactions and experience within emergency care, believing that everything we do ultimately hinges on the patients, care providers and bystanders involved.  Joel lives in Edinburgh with his family, plays geeky board games and emerged from the 2020 pandemic as a runner and baker.  He’ll probably have found something different next week.