The BLS/AED Subcommittee has been asked to provide a definition
for the term "First Responder". This has been defined as follows:
First Responder:
A person, trained as a minimum in basic life support
and the use of a defibrillator, who attends a potentially life-threatening emergency.
This response may be by the statutory ambulance service or complementary to it.
Examples of first responders include "co-responders"
(police or fire service), members of staff of a shopping mall or other public place,
members of a first aid organisation, lifeguards, community first responders (see below),
and others who have been trained to act in this capacity.
Members of the statutory ambulance services may also act as first responders.
A Community First Responder is a first responder, usually (but not exclusively)
a lay person, who makes himself or herself available to be dispatched by the ambulance control to attend an incident.
Public Access Defibrillation:
Use of an automated external defibrillator (AED)
that is made available to members of the local workforce or members of the public or both.
BLS/AED Subcommittee
November 2003
"First Responder" and other terms
