St John Ambulance have praised the work of their volunteers in regional areas following the release of new research.
Despite facing many challenges unique to country areas, regional crews consistently responded to emergency calls faster than their counterparts in capital cities outside of Western Australia.
Abby White has been volunteering as an ambulance officer for the past three years and also works as a registered nurse.
“It’s challenging and involving. Helping your community is awesome. You can sit back and realise you’ve done something good today, as cliche as that sounds,” she said.
Across regional WA, St John has more than 3,700 clinical volunteers who work alongside paramedics to provide emergency medical care. St John says the level of training offered to its clinical volunteers is equal to that undertaken by career paramedics in large urban areas of North America and Europe.
St John Country Ambulance Service general manager Julian Smith said the organisation wanted to highlight the capacity of its clinical volunteers in order to grow a better understanding of how volunteers can and do save lives.
“Every day across Western Australia our clinical volunteers help save lives. They’re able to do this because they’re equipped with sophisticated clinical training equal to that undertaken by emergency medical technicians in some overseas ambulance services,” Mr Smith said.
Kiah Ranford-Swan has been a volunteer for two years and said she had decided to turn her volunteer work into a career.
“After two shifts with St John, I thought this is the career for me. I fell in love with it. I’ve started pursing a career to be an ambulance officer. I’m halfway through a university degree,” she said.
