Down Under - Australia

[AusMed]

Anyone on here from the land of Oz?

 

[shannon williams]

no, although it would be interesting to hear about how you do things there, as far as who is in the ambulance, do you use volunteers?

 

[AusMed]

Ok Shannon, here we go......
To start with I will refer to the service I work for - Ambulance Service of New South Wales (ASNSW), which is a Government run service.
"We service a population of over 6.7 million people in NSW, distributed across an area of 801,600 square kilometres. Ambulance provided over 1,118,000 total responses (both emergency and non-emergency) in 2007/08" (as per our website).
We have a couple of thousand paid operational staff members that make up our response base. There are also over 100 volunteer Honorary Ambulance Officers in remote locations.
In most areas cars, are staffed by 2 fully paid staff members.

Entry into the Service is currently via two pathways.
1) Complete the Bachelor of Clinical Practice (Paramedic) degree at university over three years and then apply to gain employment with the Service. After working on road for roughly 6 months you then become a qualified Paramedic.
2) Apply for a position and be trained 'in-house' by the Service. After the initial 8 week training course, you go on road and work with clinical mentors for the next 12 months. Come back to the school and do some more training followed by another 2 years on road. Then come back for another 3 weeks training and become a Qualified Paramedic (this is the path I am currently undertaking).
Following 3 years as a Paramedic, you can apply to get onto an Intensive Care Paramedic course (very competitive) and if successfully completed, then become an ICP.

We have a range of vehicles all around the state. Frontline vehicles are mainly Merc Sprinters, with a few VW transporters. We also have Rapid Response units using Subaru Forresters. On top of this we have a few motorcycles in the Sydney metro area. Also have Rescue trucks, 4wds, Multi-purpose vehicles (can be used for overwieght people, transport critical patient and team of doctors/equip), and a fleet of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. All up over 1000 vehicles in service.

For now I will leave you to soak in this information. More to come later (if you want).

ASNSW website - ASNSW

 

[firecoins]

There is someone on from NZ.

 

[Wee-EMT]

Not from Australia, but would love to work down there. We have the same scope of practice. I have some class mates looking to work there for a couple months.

 

[AusMed]

The chances of your classmates being able to work for a 'couple of months' in one of the Services in Aus is slim to nil. Most of the Services have an extensive recruitment prosess and even with prior training, you will still need to go through all the hoops needed to go out on road. I did my initial training with guys from the UK and one from the US, all were very experienced Paramedcs from their home land but all had to jump through the hoops to get on road. There are the local policies/procedures etc to be learnt and probalby wouldn't be worth it for your mates and the Service for it to be for only a 'couple of months work'.
Don't mean to burst the bubble of your mates.

 

[mycrofft]

Cold you talk your folks into buying some AMERICAN vehicles please?

Kidding.
Welcome aboard.

 

[AusMed]

From some of the pics I have seen of the AMERICAN vehicles you drive around it, they are massive! (compared to what ours look like). It's hard enough trying to reverse the cars we have now into some of the bays at nursing homes, let alone with a big pod on the back.

 

[Explorer127]

I've been to New zealand and to australia, and I've only seen the van-ambulances. Do you guys have the box ambulances?

 

[AusMed]

My service uses the van, Sprinter.

Some services use the box to a small extent still (mainly Queensland I think).

 

[AusMed]

A few more pics of our fleet for you all to have a gander at......

Rapid Responder vehicle - Single officer response unit. Can be dispatched to scenes quicker then frontline cars and give reports. They generally have Intensive Care Paramedics in them and can be a quick way of getting high clinical back-up.

 

[AusMed]

Another single officer response......
Motorbikes. Again they are generally ICP level. Used only in the Sydney metro area to get quickly through traffic.

 

[AusMed]

Next up, our aerial team...

Fixed wing plane capable of one or two patients.

And one of our new helicopters.

 

[downunderwunda]

I am from downunder. Where in NSW r u from?

 

[AusMed]

Currently Sydney Nth during probie year.
And you my fellow Aussie?

BTW, great username.

 

[Wee-EMT]

The chances of your classmates being able to work for a 'couple of months' in one of the Services in Aus is slim to nil. Most of the Services have an extensive recruitment prosess and even with prior training, you will still need to go through all the hoops needed to go out on road. I did my initial training with guys from the UK and one from the US, all were very experienced Paramedcs from their home land but all had to jump through the hoops to get on road. There are the local policies/procedures etc to be learnt and probalby wouldn't be worth it for your mates and the Service for it to be for only a 'couple of months work'.
Don't mean to burst the bubble of your mates.

No worries. I've looked into myself and thats pretty much what everyone has told me. If I ever go down to Aus, it's for the beautiful beaches!

 

[downunderwunda]

I am rural probie.

 

[downunderwunda]

No worries. I've looked into myself and thats pretty much what everyone has told me. If I ever go down to Aus, it's for the beautiful beaches!

Just the beaches????


What about the babes?

 

[AusMed]

Yes I certainly enjoy driving along the beaches with such easy on the eye scenery (but gotta make sure the sunnies are on so they can't see you)

 

[OzAmbo]

Another aussie here, from Vic.