Paramedics Australasia

QLD: Undergraduate paramedic education thriving in Queensland

Paul Allan — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:36:30 +0000

Undergraduate paramedic education has evolved rapidly in Queensland over the last five years, with a bachelor-level qualification fast becoming the accepted minimum standard of education for new paramedics entering the profession.

Study in the paramedic science discipline is currently available via one of seven undergraduate programs offered at five different Queensland universities.

Enrolments in each of these programs are thriving, with competitive tertiary entrance scores required for admission.

The following is a list of Queensland universities offering undergraduate paramedic education (in alphabetical order):

Australian Catholic University
Location: Brisbane, QLD

Bachelor of Nursing / Bachelor of Paramedicine – Double Degree
Note: Bachelor of Paramedicine currently not available as a stand alone degree at ACU in Queensland

Web: www.acu.edu.au

CQUniversity

Location: Rockhampton, QLD

Bachelor of Paramedic Science
Enrolment via distance education also available

Web: www.cqu.edu.au

Queensland University of Technology

Location: Brisbane, QLD

Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedic)
Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedic) – Graduate Entry
Bachelor of Nursing / Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedic) – Double Degree

Web: www.qut.edu.au/study

The University of Queensland

Location: Brisbane, QLD

Bachelor of Paramedic Science

Web: www.uq.edu.au

University of the Sunshine Coast
Location: Sippy Downs, QLD

Bachelor of Paramedic Science

Web: www.usc.edu.au

Paramedics Australasia is a strong supporter of undergraduate paramedic education in Queensland, through sponsorship of academic awards and support of student research activities.

Student paramedics enrolled in these undergraduate programs are strongly encouraged to become members of Student Paramedics Australasia, which has an active presence at each institution.

Please note: Details are provided as an information service only, and are current as of 18/05/2012. For further information, please visit the website of each tertiary institution.

Conference: 2012/09/21

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:13:37 +0000

The 2012 International Emergency Care Symposium

When: 21st September
Where: Melbourne, VIC
Web: http://www.crepatientsafety.org.au/seminars/2012seminars.html

International Emergency Care (IEC) is a rapidly growing field of interest in global health. It encompasses the work done by doctors and nurses in the evolution of emergency care systems in countries at extreme levels of development. Emergency care providers are collaborating across the globe to provide emergency care capacity development, emergency care specialty development and international disaster response.

Who is the IEC Symposium for? Emergency Physicians, Emergency Medicine trainees, Emergency Nurses, Paramedics, Medical students, Any health professional with an interest in global emergency health care.

Does direct transport to provincial burn centres improve outcomes? A spatial epidemiology of severe burn injury in British Columbia, 2001-2006.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:45:31 +0000

Can J Surg. 2012 Apr;55(2):110-6. FREE FULL TEXT

Bell N, Simons R, Hameed SM, Schuurman N, Wheeler S.

Source

Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Abstract

Background: In Canada and the United States, research has shown that injured patients initially treated at smaller emergency departments before transfer to larger regional facilities are more likely to require longer stays in hospital or suffer greater mortality. It remains unknown whether transport status is an independent predictor of adverse health events among persons requiring care from provincial burn centres. Methods: We obtained case records from the British Columbia Trauma Registry for adult patients (age ≥ 18 yr) referred or transported directly to the Vancouver General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital burn centres between Jan. 1, 2001, and Mar. 31, 2006. Prehospital and in-transit deaths and deaths in other facilities were identified using the provincial Coroner Service database. Place of injury was identified through data linkage with census records. We performed bivariate analysis for continuous and discrete variables. Relative risk (RR) of prehospital and in-hospital mortality and hospital stay by transport status were analyzed using a Poisson regression model. Results: After controlling for patient and injury characteristics, indirect referral did not influence RR of in-facility death (RR 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54- 3.22) or hospital stay (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.65-1.42). Rural populations experienced an increased risk of total mortality (RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.00-1.48). Conclusion: Transfer status is not a significant indicator of RR of death or hospital stay among patients who received care at primary care facilities before transport to regional burn centres. However, significant differences in prehospital mortality show that improvements in rural mortality can still be made.

Prehospital analgesia in New South Wales, Australia.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:43:29 +0000

Prehosp Disaster Med. 2011 Nov-Dec;26(6):422-6.

Bendall JC, Simpson PM, Middleton PM.

Source

Ambulance Research Institute, Ambulance Service of New South Wales, Rozelle NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Introduction: With at least 20% of ambulance patients reporting pain of moderate to severe intensity, pain management has become a primary function of modern ambulance services. The objective of this study was to describe the use of intravenous morphine, inhaled methoxyflurane, and intranasal fentanyl when administered in the out-of-hospital setting by paramedics within a large Australian ambulance service.Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using data from ambulance patient health care records (PHCR) for all cases from 01 July 2007 through 30 June 2008 in which an analgesic agent was administered (alone or in combination).Results: During the study period, there were 97,705 patients ≤100 years of age who received intravenous (IV) morphine, intranasal (IN) fentanyl, or inhaled methoxyflurane, either alone or in combination. Single-agent analgesia was administered in 87% of cases. Methoxyflurane was the most common agent, being administered in almost 60% of cases. Females were less likely to receive an opiate compared to males (RR = 0.83, 95% CI, 0.82-0.84, p <0.0001). Pediatric patients were less likely to receive opiate analgesia compared to adults (RR = 0.65, 95% CI, 0.63-0.67, p <0.0001). The odds of opiate analgesia (compared to pediatric patients 0-15 years) were 1.47; 2.10; 2.56 for 16-39 years, 40-59 years, and ≥60 years, respectively. Pediatric patients were more likely to receive fentanyl than morphine (RR = 1.69, 95% CI, 1.64-1.74, p < 0.0001).Conclusion: In this ambulance service, analgesia most often is provided through the use of a single agent. The majority of patients receive non-opioid analgesia with methoxyflurane, most likely because all levels of paramedics are authorized to administer that analgesic. Females and children are less likely to receive opiate-based analgesia than their male and adult counterparts, respectively. Paramedics appear to favor intranasal opiate delivery over intravenous delivery in children with acute pain.

Emergency tracheal intubation without drugs: outcome and one-year survival of medical patients not in cardiac arrest.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:41:16 +0000

Scott Med J. 2012 May;57(2):84-7.

Paul AM, Young NH, Price GC.

Source

Department of Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Abstract

Non-medicine-assisted tracheal intubation in prehospital trauma is associated with a dismal prognosis. We wished to study the outcome of medical patients who underwent non-medicine-assisted tracheal intubation. This retrospective study of patients attending our university hospital emergency department was conducted over seven years. The tracheal intubation database was analysed to identify medical patients not in cardiac arrest undergoing tracheal intubation without medicines. Intensive care unit, hospital, 12-month mortality and patients’ residence at 12 months were recorded. Eighty patients were identified who met inclusion criteria. The most common reason for intubation was definite airway compromise due to decreased conscious level (62.5%), then respiratory failure (26.3%) and finally potentially compromised airway due to a decreased conscious level (11.2%). Eighty-eight percent of patients with a definitely compromised airway were successfully intubated at first attempt compared with 66.7% of patients with a potentially compromised airway or respiratory failure (P= 0.03). Of 75 patients with complete data, 30 (40%) were survivors at 12 months, with all but two (6.7%) living at home. Non-medicine-assisted laryngoscopy leads to an increased first time tracheal intubation failure rate in patients with intact airway reflexes and, therefore, cannot be recommended as best practice.

The Hospital’s Role in Improving Survival of Patients With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:39:12 +0000

Clin Cardiol. 2012 Apr 30. doi: 10.1002/clc.21992. [Epub ahead of print]

Kumar S, Ewy GA.

Source

Cardiology and University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center Tucson, Arizona.

Abstract

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a major public health problem. Unfortunately, in spite of recurring updated guidelines, survival of patients with OHCA had been unchanged for decades. Recently, new approaches to patients with OHCA during the community and prehospital phases of therapy for cardiac arrest have resulted in a dramatic improvement in survival. Further improvement in survival has resulted from hospitals designated as Cardiac Receiving Centers. These centers are committed to the treatment of post-cardiac arrest syndrome by providing 24/7 therapeutic mild hypothermia, urgent cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention, evidence-based termination of resuscitation protocols that limit premature withdrawal of care, protocol to address organ donation, commitment of cardiocerebral resuscitation training in their community, and a commitment and proven ability of data collection to assure that instituted changes result in improved survival. This newer aspect of hospital practice is an aspect that needs to be embraced by either becoming a Cardiac Receiving Center or partnering with other hospitals that can provide this critically important service. Clin. Cardiol. 2012 doi: 10.1002/clc.21992 The authors have no funding, financial relationships, or conflicts of interest to disclose.

Challenges in International Medicine: Ethical Dilemmas, Unanticipated Consequences, and Accepting Limitations.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:37:37 +0000

Acad Emerg Med. 2012 Apr 30. doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2012.01376.x. [Epub ahead of print]

Iserson KV, Biros MH, James Holliman C.

Source

From the Department of Emergency Medicine, The University of Arizona, and REEME Project (KVI), Tucson, AZ; the Department of Emergency Medicine, Hennepin County Medical System (MHB), Minneapolis, MN; the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD; and the Department of Emergency Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (CJH), Washington, DC.

Abstract

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:000-000 © 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ABSTRACT: While personal and organizational challenges occur in every area of health care, practitioners of international medicine face unique problems and dilemmas that are rarely discussed in training programs. Health professions schools, residency and fellowship programs, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and government programs have a responsibility to make those new to international medicine aware of the special circumstances that they may face and to provide methods for understanding and dealing with these circumstances. Standard “domestic” approaches to such challenges may not work in international medicine, even though these challenges may appear to be similar to those faced in other clinical settings. How should organizations ensure that well-meaning health intervention efforts do not cause adverse unintended sequelae? How should an individual balance respect for cultural uniqueness and local mores that may profoundly differ from his or her own beliefs, with the need to remain a moral agent true to one’s self? When is acceptance the appropriate response to situations in which limitations of resources seem to preclude any good solution? Using a case-based approach, the authors discuss issues related to the four major international medicine domains: clinical practice (postdisaster response, resource limitations, standards of care), medical systems and systems development (prehospital care, wartime casualties, sustainable change, cultural awareness), teaching (instruction and local resources, professional preparation), and research (questionable funded studies, clinical trials, observational studies). It is hoped that this overview may help prepare those involved with international medicine for the challenges and dilemmas they may face and help frame their responses to these situations.

Comparison of Neurological Outcome between Tracheal Intubation and Supraglottic Airway Device Insertion of Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients: A Nationwide, Population-based, Observational Study.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:34:53 +0000

J Emerg Med. 2012 Apr 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Tanabe S, Ogawa T, Akahane M, Koike S, Horiguchi H, Yasunaga H, Mizoguchi T, Hatanaka T, Yokota H, Imamura T.

Source

Foundation for Ambulance Service Development, Emergency Life-Saving Technique Academy of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The effect of prehospital use of supraglottic airway devices as an alternative to tracheal intubation on long-term outcomes of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is unclear.

STUDY OBJECTIVES:

We compared the neurological outcomes of patients who underwent supraglottic airway device insertion with those who underwent tracheal intubation.

METHODS:

We conducted a nationwide population-based observational study using a national database containing all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases in Japan over a 3-year period (2005-2007). The rates of neurologically favorable 1-month survival (primary outcome) and of 1-month survival and return of spontaneous circulation before hospital arrival (secondary outcomes) were examined. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to adjust for potential confounders. Advanced airway devices were used in 138,248 of 318,141 patients, including an endotracheal tube (ETT) in 16,054 patients (12%), a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in 34,125 patients (25%), and an esophageal obturator airway (EOA) in 88,069 patients (63%).

RESULTS:

The overall rate of neurologically favorable 1-month survival was 1.03% (1426/137,880). The rates of neurologically favorable 1-month survival were 1.14% (183/16,028) in the ETT group, 0.98% (333/34,059) in the LMA group, and 1.04% (910/87,793) in the EOA group. Compared with the ETT group, the rates were significantly lower in the LMA group (adjusted odds ratio 0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-0.94) and EOA group (adjusted odds ratio 0.81, 95% CI 0.68-0.96).

CONCLUSIONS:

Prehospital use of supraglottic airway devices was associated with slightly, but significantly, poorer neurological outcomes compared with tracheal intubation, but neurological outcomes remained poor overall.

Traumatic spinal cord injuries – incidence, mechanisms and course.

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:32:52 +0000

Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2012 Apr 17;132(7):831-837. FREE FULL TEXT

[Article in English, Norwegian]

Hagen EM, Rekand T, Gilhus NE, Grønning M.

Abstract

Background. The primary purpose of this article is to provide an overview of demography, neurological level of injury, extent of lesion, incidence, prevalence, injury mechanisms as well as lethality and causes of death associated with traumatic spinal cord injuries. Method. A literature search was carried out in PubMed, with the search words «traumatic spinal cord injury»/«traumatic spinal cord injuries» together with «epidemiology», and «spinal cord injury»/«spinal cord injuries» together with «epidemiology». Results. The reported annual incidence of traumatic spinal cord injuries varies from 2.3 per million in a study from Canada to 83 per million in Alaska. The prevalence is given as ranging from 236 per million in India to 1800 per million in the USA. The average age at the time of injury varies from 26.8 years in Turkey to 55.5 years in the USA. The ratio of men to women varies from 0.9 in Taiwan to 12.0 in Nigeria. The most frequent cause of injury is traffic accidents, followed by falls, violence and sports/leisure activity incidents. Patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries have a higher lethality than the normal population. The most frequent causes of death today are airway problems, heart disease and suicide. Interpretation. There are large geographical differences in reported incidence, prevalence and lethality. This is attributable to differences in definition, inclusion, classification and patient identification procedures in the various studies, together with geographical and cultural differences and differences in prehospital and hospital treatment.

Response Autumn 2012

Amy Cotton — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:50:47 +0000

The Autumn 2012 edition of Response is available online for members now!

Autumn 2012 (Vol. 39, No. 1)

Featuring:

The Hong Kong experience with computerised data management;

Clinical leadership in the Ambulance Service;

Fast-Track for Stroke – the New Zealand award winning program;

Human issues and aspects affecting Bariatric people;

Board information, Events Calendar, Ambulance Service Medal recipients, and more…

Congratulations go to Stuart Howard as our winner of the $150 Editor’s Choice Award for his article titled: Paramedic Assessment and Management of the Adult Trauma Patient with Suspected Spinal Injury.

For submission details and information see: www.paramedics.org.au/response

Life and death decisions all part of the job (Canberra Times, ACT)

Amy Cotton — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:27:24 +0000

By Christopher Knaus;  May 12, 2012
From: The Canberra Times

Ambulance paramedic Adam McCoy at the Emergency Department of The Canberra Hospital. Photo: Graham Tidy

Far away from screaming sirens, the blood and the raw trauma that ACT paramedics are called to every day, sit a group of office-bound ambulance officers who balance life and death using a mouse and keyboard.

The nerve centre of the ACT Ambulance Service sits in a discreet office, tucked away in the huge emergency services headquarters at Fairbairn.

Here triple-0 calls are taken, assessed, and prioritised, before ambulances are sent hurtling through Canberra’s streets in response.

The room has traditionally been off-limits to the media, but The Canberra Times was given full access to the triple-0 communications centre while spending a night standing witness to the work of the ACT Ambulance Service. The air in the room is understandably tense. Split-second decisions here can mean a life saved or lost, and the pressure on the team reflects the weight of those consequences.

A stream of triple-0 calls come through during the night.

The calls can be of varying severity, from cases of mild nausea, to the baby that has stopped breathing.

The latter is something the entire team appears to dread most.

Throughout each shift, there is a constant effort to juggle the ACT’s ambulances between jobs that have been phoned in, getting crews to life-threatening cases, but ensuring others remain at strategic spots in the north and south of the city, all the while leaving adequate resources free for critical jobs. “It’s like a chess game, because you’ve got to think three or four moves in front,” ambulance dispatcher Marc Brown says.

“You don’t know what’s coming in, you’ve got to position your crews in the right places for anything. ?

“We always talk about leaving the last car for the baby not breathing, because that’s the one that touches everyone.”

Tonight, Kim McCauley is answering triple-0 calls. She had been working in the ambulance service since 2005, bringing with her a mixed bag of experience as a pharmacy assistant and a communications operator in the air force.

The importance of the role is not lost on her.

“You get that baby not breathing phone call. It might only be five minutes until an ambulance gets there, but you’re the lifeline for that five minutes,” she says.

“You’re the one trying to keep them calm, telling them what to do.”

The professionalism and concentration of the team is immediately obvious.

But trying to stay detached from the intense emotion, trauma, and desperation of those on the other end of the telephone can be impossible.

“We get a lot of calls for suicides, where a wife has come home to find her husband hanging somewhere,” ? McCauley says.

“You try ? to remain a little removed from it?. But they do affect you.

“We all say to each other, if you have a really awful call then log out, go for a walk around the block, get a coffee, do what you need to do, because some of them are just terrible.” Just like their colleagues out on the road, the triple-0 communications team come face-to-face with the territory’s most shocking trauma every day.

But the team’s work is kept mostly away from the public eye, meaning their efforts can be “understated” to a degree, according to ?McCauley.

The high stakes that go with the job can take time to get used to, according to Brown. “When I first started here, it was hard to leave it at the door. You used to think ‘if I’d done things differently, would I have had better outcomes’,” he says.

“It’s hard to explain . . . but you realise that you’ve made the right decision at the split second, you’ve got two or three seconds to get a car onto this case, and you’ve made a decision and you just stand by it.”

Each member of the team deals with the difficult calls in their own way.

“Having a good crew to work with is imperative,” intensive care paramedic Marty Owen says.

“We get to chat and have a joke. Black humour is pretty big in the ambulance service. It has been in all the years I’ve been in it.?

“There’s an acknowledgement that you need to talk about things. My wife is in health care as well, so I talk about issues with her as well.”

? Owen is a highly experienced intensive care paramedic, and is working in a newly created role in the communications centre.

Working as a communications clinician, ?Owen brings vast knowledge and experience, gained from years on the road.

He oversees dispatch decisions, provides clinical support, triage advice, and can give callers medical advice until an ambulance crew arrives.

He makes sure life-threatening cases are not going unrecognised by the system, and that less serious calls aren’t being treated with too high a priority.

The team often take calls from those so hysterical and distressed that attempting to decipher the nature of the problem is impossible.

Without being able to see the patient, that makes assigning a priority to the task difficult.

“You basically get an address out of them and you just have to tell the dispatcher, ‘I don’t know what’s going on’,” ? McCauley says.

“Whether they’re just over-emotional or something really bad has happened, you just don’t know.”?

Fifty years in full flight (Herald Sun, VIC)

Amy Cotton — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:19:15 +0000

Alex White; May 12, 2012 5:04PM
From: Sunday Herald Sun

Crash survivor Peter Connell and Shane Foster of Air Ambulance Victoria. Picture: Rob Leeson Sunday Herald Sun

WHEN the car Peter Connell was driving veered off a rural road and plunged eight metres he should have died; instead he was the first person to be rescued by Air Ambulance Victoria.

It has been 50 years since that maiden voyage and the 74-year-old survivor from Shepparton met paramedics last week to celebrate the milestone.

Mr Connell said he was returning home from work on the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme on May 8, 1962, to see his heavily pregnant wife, when he lost control of his car near Corryong.

His right ear was ripped off, his elbow smashed and his spine was crushed in the wreck.

Awake, but in a critical condition, emergency services got him out and loaded him on to a plane within the hour.

At Austin Hospital in Melbourne his ear was reattached and his elbow fixed but Mr Connell was paralysed.

Despite his injury, Mr Connell said he was happy to be alive and owed his life to Air Ambulance Victoria.

“I wasn’t supposed to see the night through but here I am still here alive today 50 years later,” Mr Connell said.

“At the time there wasn’t anything like it, I should have been dead. It’s a marvellous service.”

Mr Connell was in a coma for three months after the accident and was released after 13 months.

He was one of 12 people rescued in the first year of operation.

Last year Air Ambulance Victoria helped more than 6000 people, including 3000 critical cases.

Ambulance Victoria’s chief executive officer Greg Sassella said he hoped the service would operate for another 50 years. “We are talking thousands of people per year who have had their lives changed,” he said.

“Our survival rates are among the highest in the world.

“We know we have had a big impact on the road toll and we are celebrating.”

Paramedic students experience work in China (Campus Daily, QLD)

Amy Cotton — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:09:55 +0000

From: Campus Daily

Three Brisbane paramedic students have been to China to experience overseas emergency care as part of a new project given the green light at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Third year students Laura Kirby and Andrew Fordyce, and second year student Bec Andrews were part of a successful pilot project last December, which has paved the way for an annual program to send selected QUT paramedic students to undertake work placement in China.

The students spent time with an ambulance team at China’s Tianjin Emergency Centre (TMC), where a paramedic training base had been established by QUT and the China Hospital Association.

Dr Janet Hou, from QUT’s School of Public Health, established the overseas work placement program.

Dr Hou said the school had a long-standing working relationship with TMC and the Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS), with the three parties establishing the TMC training base for paramedic practices in 2005.

“TMC is a pre-hospital rescue centre for over 13 million people and processes many patients each year,” she said.

“This training base provides Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedics) students with a unique opportunity for real world field experiences in an international context.

“It is not only the number of patients, but also the variety of patients, that will provide our students with the opportunity to enhance their clinical knowledge in paramedic practice as well as give them a general understanding of the health system in a developing country like China.”

“We saw lots of poverty, but the hospitals are on par with ours in Australia,” said Bec. “In TMC, we spent a day in the intensive care unit with the hospital director, who was an excellent teacher. He gave us a lecture and took us on a round of the patients – it was a privilege – not many people would get that opportunity.”

“It was really different,” said Laura. “In Australia, paramedics are very hands on. Over there, even though there’s a doctor, a nurse, a driver and stretcher bearer on board the ambulance, the family decides what treatment is given.”

“It was an interesting cultural and learning experience which benefited our learning in an educational and experiential sense,” said Andrew. “We learned the workings of a privatised healthcare system, its benefits and downfalls as well as a unique view of a world so very different to our own.”

Scholarship awards for Emergency Health students

Amy Cotton — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:44:05 +0000

Two Emergency Health honours students are contributing to increasing paramedic’s body of knowledge through research projects supported by St John Ambulance. Christian Winship and Jason Tosch, both first year Honours students in the Bachelor of Emergency Health (Paramedic) degree, were awarded $5000 each from the inaugural St John Ambulance Australia Research Honours Scholarship to assist their research projects over the next 18 months.

Both projects were deemed to be addressing gaps in current first aid research.

Christian’s project is titled: ‘Assessment of the Glasgow Coma Scale: A study examining the accuracy of paramedic undergraduates’, while Jason’s project is: ‘Rescuer Fatigue in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation’.

Their supervisor Dr Brett Williams was delighted for both candidates. “These scholarships are a reflection of the quality and capacity of both Christian and Jason and their research proposals,” he said. This was reflected in their positive feedback on their research questions and methodologies. It is hoped their studies can be replicated with St John Ambulance Australia in 2013.

Brett added that he was delighted for both students who have also just commenced roles in the industry — Jason as a paramedic with Ambulance Victoria and Christian with the ACT Ambulance Service.

Conference: 2012/10/06

Amy Cotton — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:30:39 +0000

War and Disaster Conference 2012

When: 6 October 2012

Where: Darwin, NT
Web: http://www.waranddisaster.com/

The National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) was established as a Australian Government initiative, following Darwin’s successful response to the Bali Bombings of 2002 and 2005.

The Centres mission is to significantly enhance Top End clinical surge capacity, while providing – through preparedness, education, training and research – clinical and academic leadership in disaster and trauma care.

The NCCTRC is funded by the Australian Government and is a key component of their disaster and emergency medical response, ensuring the Top End and Royal Darwin Hospital are prepared and ready in the event of a major on shore or offshore incident both in Australia and South East Asia.

War and Disaster 2012 provides an opportunity to share clinical experiences and acknowledges the strong ties between Bali’s RSUP Sanglah Hospital and Royal Darwin Hospital.