The St John WA Bunch share- their experiences this International Paramedics Day
Tomorrow is International Paramedics Day (IPD).
IPD was launched on 8 July 2022 to honour Dominique-Jean Larrey, the man often referred to as the ‘father of modern-day ambulance services’.
It’s a day to recognise the valuable contributions paramedics make to society, and to educate the public on the wide variety of roles they undertake to keep their communities safe.
Now in its second year, the 2023 theme for IPD is ‘what paramedics do’ and here at St John WA we couldn’t just say saving lives, because we recognise there is so much that goes into keeping our community healthy and resilient.
We spoke to nine qualified paramedics to create The St John WA Bunch, a cross-section of the St John WA family, to tell us about their experience as paramedics, about their career journeys, and most importantly what they do in their incredibly diverse and varied roles within our organisation.
You can meet the ‘bunch’ on our Instagram page over the coming days, because we couldn’t stop at one day to celebrate the team (everyday should be International Paramedics Day in our opinion).
Mel Gardiner will tell you about her legendary STORC midwifery program, while Carla Robson shares her experience in remote Laverton, Andrew Lake takes us through how he went from being a boy-in-blue to a station manager with the green team. The thing they all have in common is they started their careers with St John WA as on-road paramedics before focusing on their special skills to branch off into their specialised pathway to further serve their community.
Check out what makes each member of the ‘bunch’ unique and learn about just how much paramedics do on our socials.
Can’t wait to see all the videos? Here are some quotes from the St John Bunch.
Mel “I’m a registered midwife as well as a paramedic, and so I’ve kind of combined my two loves, I suppose, into one perfect job”.
Carla “In the community paramedic space I’ve really found a tribe that I feel I can be myself with and open up with”.
Jason “What we do in the cardiac arrest space is the difference between someone dying or being back with their family around Christmas table. The impact that we can have is fantastic for those people.”
Andrew “I love turning up. I love the people we work with. I wake up every morning, happy to come to work.”
Nik “You never know what’s coming up next, what sort of incident you’re going to respond to next up, it can be anything from assisting at a fire or flood emergency, through to a confined space or vertical type rescue or even getting deployed interstate”.
Cornell “So this for me personally, is my 30th year in emergency services. I’m super fortunate and blessed to be able to do this, and I’m quite passionate about it”.
Deane “If you’re studying paramedicine, keep going. Keep getting as much experience as you can. Come try it out. It’s a fantastic career”.
Tiq “I love being part of St John. We’ve got a great team. Colleagues become almost like another family. And yeah, I enjoy my job. I don’t think many people can say that”.
Sean “The most satisfying thing about what I do is having the opportunity to watch people develop in the job and become good independent paramedics”.
