Ambulance Education and Training
Wellington Free Ambulance has a strong emphasis on continuing education of our professional ambulance staff. The New Zealand College of Paramedic Sciences operates in a joint venture arrangement with Whitereia Polytechnic to deliver a three-year Bachelor of Health Sciences (Paramedic) degree. These students, who are not employees of Wellington Free Ambulance, graduate with an ambulance qualification and are ready to be employed by the sector.
In 2004 an Intern–Trainee Paramedic scheme was established to complement the degree programme in developing the future ambulance workforce. Intern Trainee Paramedics work alongside experienced and qualified ambulance paramedics while at the same time studying toward ambulance qualifications and gaining invaluable operational and clinical experience.
Wellington Free Ambulance Service employs paramedics at the following entry levels:
Patient Transport Service staff are qualified with the Pre-hospital Emergency Care (PHEC), Driving and Professional Practice Course (ethics, law, handling grief and managing stress, customer service). These staff do not routinely respond to emergency calls.
Ambulance Paramedics are employed with the National Certificate in Ambulance (Patient Care and Transport), which is a qualification, based on unit standards and lodged with the National Qualifications Framework through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Similarly the paramedic may be a graduate of the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Paramedic) degree.
Ambulance paramedics post employment complete the Advanced Life Support – A [ALS-A] programme to become qualified to administer intravenous infusions and cardiac arrest drugs (adrenaline, atropine, lignocaine) and run an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest scene. These staff also insert laryngeal mask airways to protect the airway in unconscious patients.
After a further period of on the job experience, paramedics qualify as Advanced Life Support – B [ALS-B] officers where they administer narcotic intravenous analgesia and naloxone in addition to their ALS-A skill set.
A small number of staff will go on to qualify as Intensive Care Paramedics (ICPs) who administer a range of resuscitation drugs and perform a range of patient care resuscitation skills including transcutaneous pacing, endotracheal intubation, chest decompression, cricothyroidotomy, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), capnography, intra-osseous infusion, thrombolysis and twelve-lead electrocardiogram. This qualification is at a post-graduate diploma level.
All paramedical staff are assessed each year through an in-service continuing medical education programme and clinical skill revalidation. This verifies the individual paramedic’s ‘right to practice’ issued by the employer.
Overview
The role of a paramedic is to provide potentially life saving skills in a timely and efficient manner. These skills are often utilised under highly stressful conditions and the professionalism displayed is a credit to the training and skills of all paramedics. For all cases there is often both an immediate need for treatment, and and the need to get a patient to definitive care.
Wellington Free Ambulance currently employs 85 full-time paramedics, and has an additional 50 volunteer paramedics as part of it's frontline staff. Our paramedics are trained in pre-hospital emergency care.
Paramedic shifts
A paramedic works in 'cycles' - each cycle is eight days in length, with the first four days at work (two day shifts of 8am-6pm, followed by two night shifts of 6pm-8am), followed by four days off. After a paramedic has completed twelve cycles, they have two cycles off (16 days in total) before their cycles are reset.
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