Aussie Canuck

I am from Alberta. I spent time working in Grande Prarie and Calgary, but now I am working in Queensland Australia. In fact I can see the beach right now.... and I hear it is snowing in Calgary today... Approaching mid winter here and it is about 27 degrees out, I might just go for a swim

Sledog1, I came to Australia with my wife, who is an Aussie, as she wished to return home after 5 years in Canada. The immigration was very easy on a spouse visa. The process of having the service here process your equivalency is quite painful. They have no predetermined equality matrix as they do with the UK and some other countries, so they examine every Canadian applicant based on what documentation you can provide. This is not simply Degrees and Diplomas, but the actual didactic content, dialectical timeframes, and skill assessments. This takes many weeks, and then you must sit a panel interview with the Medical Director and Multiple Training Officers. They then assign you to a level that they feel you are equivalent to. They CCP training means nothing here, as they do not really utilize said in the service. A Canadian ACP is for the most part, an Intensive Care Paramedic here. I will have to spend three months working with another ICP to familiarize myself with the P&P before they will authorize me to work alone as ICP's do here. It will take me the better part of a year to be working at the level I had been for 7 years in Canada. The price you pay for the weather and the waves I guess. I did my CCP training through Ornge in Ontario, they held a class in Alberta for my services flight team and I was fortunate enough to be able to take the training, even though the Alberta College of Paramedics does not yet register CCP's. BTW, I am originally from Antigonish NS, I almost went to NS to work prior to my wife bribing me with the surfing and riding of the motorcycle year round, and I have found three hockey teams to play on. I would love to show her the east coast some time though.

I am a Canadian, who has recently moved down under, and no I am not taking a job away from any Australian. It is my opinion that the QAS has been very thorough in their Equivalency Qualification Assessment. They have given me a good sense of their determination to employ qualified staff for the multitudes of positions they currently have available. There are many positions to fill now and in the very near future, or they would not be recruiting abroad. I was a Critical Care Paramedic in Canada, with two degrees, a diploma, and years of experience; and they don't simply let you walk in off the street and hand you the Intensive Care Epaulettes. There is a long and arderous process you must go through. It has taken me much longer to begin working than I had hoped, but I cannot question the need for due diligence in this process. They are certainly not handing all the jobs to "forieners" in an attempt to hold back the home grown students. EMS is an incredible job, and we get to do some truly amazing things, but we have to remember that we also have the ability to do incredible harm. It is the very minimum responsibility for the Management of all services to ensure that all staff are qualified to practice at the level they are employed at. If you do not make the cut, I believe that putting your effort into improving your attitude/education/experience would be a much better use of time than whining about it. But maybe it's just me, I am Canadian.