Aussie Paramedics

[nremtp]

That course appears to be the Cert IV in Basic Emergency Care which I will automatically be RPL'd for. The course I was looking at doing is the Diploma in Paramedical Science with www.medicone.com.au in Perth. There doesn't appear to be any road time or hospital time in any Diploma course I have seen either with medicone or firstresponse.

[Sheambo]

That course appears to be the Cert IV in Basic Emergency Care which I will automatically be RPL'd for. The course I was looking at doing is the Diploma in Paramedical Science with www.medicone.com.au in Perth. There doesn't appear to be any road time or hospital time in any Diploma course I have seen either with medicone or firstresponse.

Hi there Guys, let me butt into this debate and put you straight on a few things. I'm an Advanced Care Paramedic, had 20 or so years on road with The Queensland Ambulance Service. Resigned a couple of months ago to "go bush" and do remote industrial work. The main reasons being, a back injury that stopped me from continually lifting patients, had enough of night shifts and wanting a change, not to what I do for a living but where and how I do it. And I love it.

Your Cert IV would probably get you into the QAS's Patient Transport System. This is an area of operations outside of the Acute(Emergency) operations. It is the inter hospital/clinic/nursing home transport wing of the service. If you want to move from this to the acute side you must go through the 3 year student programme, with RPL for your cert 4.

Most of the people being turned out as qualified ambos, go through the student programme. That's the Diploma level. You can upgrade to the degree, through the University of Qld after qualifying. This degree can also be done prior to employment, at your own cost and with no guarantee of a job at the end of it. The people who choose to do it this way have some "on road" time as a third Officer but come out of it at the other end with very little hands on experience. Sucessful applicants for the student programme do 12 weeks training at our academy, then 12 weeks on road as a second officer with a Senior Officer (Mentor). This is repeated until they graduate in 3 years.

As for the Industrial Paramedic courses in WA, you don't get any on road experience. The training companies are not part of the Emergency Services System so

you can't. If you want to go down this track (industrial) do your self a favour and sign up with an Ambulance Service in any state and after five years or more experience, go look for a remote job then

Cheers.........Sheambo