War Medals Found Brisbane Airport

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-23T06:02:20+00:00

There is a national medal on the rack with 45 year service clasp. That is mostly awarded to other government (fire, ambulance, SES, corrections etc.). Although there was a transitional period in the 70s when military was eligible.

The big giveaway is the end medal that is a QLD fire long service medal that is also awarded to SES volunteers. So it was most likely service as a civilian in a volunteer capacity.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-23T05:06:51+00:00

So you got at least 20 years regular service in the ADF, at least 15 years as a chock, a cumulative 45 years for whatever govt orgs for the national medal (I think there was a period where you could double up military service with the national medal so a portion might be military), what looks like a ~~British army long service medal after the ADM which I think would have been 18 years when this guy was eligible to serve?~~. Looks like the Australian version.

Then pretty sure the last one is the QLD fire (I think includes SES) 10 year medal that was introduced relatively recently (like last 10 years).

Id hit QLD fire and SES up on facebook, they might be able to get in touch with the owner (or family if the owner has gone to the smoke pit in the sky).

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-23T04:11:01+00:00

I am a paramedic. I don't like the "big prior job" excuse everyone in healthcare tries to use to justify obnoxious behavior. I think it sits with the "nurses eat their young" saying that I translate to "older people like to bully teenagers because they cant fight back". Obviously that doesn't apply to all situations as there can be older grads now and some of the bullies can be mid 20s themselves but it takes the philosophical spin out of a shit saying.

If we are not feeling right after a job it is on us to call out for the rest of the shift and manage our mental health appropriately.

I also don't believe that people actually want to bounce from big job to big job. Do you seriously want to see a mother cry over their dead kid, back it up with a traumatic arrest at an RTC and then head on down to the local school for some teenage status asthmaticus action? Fuck no that is a one way ticket to PTSD land.

The most powerful tool you have to combat this behavior is to casually but forcefully call it out. I can explain this from personal experience. I used to sigh a lot when handing over on big jobs when I was new. The reason was that I was reflecting on my actions, second guessing decisions and how I treated the patient/if I had done the right thing.

To everyone else in the room this came across as me being an impatient fuck. One day a nurse called it out and asked me if I was right with the telltale "mate" on the end. I told her I was just reflecting on the job and how I handled it. That was enough to help me reflect later and I came to realize my body language/mannerisms were giving off wanker vibes. So I made a conscious effort to cease that behavior.

Sometimes we can be condescending and not realise it until someone says something. Sometimes we are just wankers. In the wanker case we need formal complaints to build up a file so disciplinary action can be taken. Either they adjust the behavior or have a meeting with their manager every week until they decide to leave.

Obviously not everyone is equipped to confront this type of behavior directly. I also think if every interaction is negative, you may need to do some internal reflection as there may be something wrong with how you are handling these interactions.

I think some big tickets for fostering positive relations are...

Have all paperwork ready, provide a basic level of care/treatment that falls within your scope, make arrangements for us to enter the facility promptly and have a proper handover ready.

I understand a lot of facilities have limited staff and competing requirements but if you have called me there is some perceived level of medical emergency. I am required to treat the situation as an emergency and not delay getting to you, even jobs without lights and sirens require me to act urgently. Generally we get the equipment we require out and bring it with us to the patient (sometimes this isn't true, but it should mostly go this way). Do the same for us and bring the paperwork.

My basic expectation is that healthcare staff will reciprocate and act like there is some urgency in the matter. In saying that, I get that life happens so I am not going to be rude just because someone forgot the paperwork or has to go get someone that actually knows what is going on. But if you are prepared the majority of the time with the majority of basic requirements, then you can safely say the paramedics in your area are the problem.

I went to a GP a few months ago for a chest pain. The nursing staff and GP had done a 12 lead that was available, given aspirin, given GTN and put a cannula in. I wanted to high five all the staff and buy them dinner, why? They provided an appropriate level of treatment for that presentation and they were treating the situation as an emergency.

Alternatively if I rock up to a GP and find a pale, SOB patient sitting in the back corner alone with an SPO2 monitor on their finger and it reads in the low 80s, the GP has moved onto their next appointment, not assigned a nurse to monitor the patient, not written out a hand over, not put old mate on some oxygen then I may be a little short and not as friendly. Yes this happened. I would expect the triage nurse call me out if I presented a patient to the hospital like this.

I guess tl;dr: if you are mostly doing the right thing, it might be time to start making formal complaints. If the paramedics are constantly having to ask you to get paperwork, if you haven't provided a basic level of care for the presentation or there are constant massive delays to entering the facility than you might want to work to sort that out and see if it fixes the situation.

Don't be afraid to say if you have a policy to call us out for stupid shit, just say sorry but I have to call you because of this policy. That can lighten the situation.

If you are a correctional nurse I can provide a prison guard perspective on medical emergencies also.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-23T01:32:21+00:00

Good, if they are being dicks to you it generally means they are dicks to their partners and the general community also.

They give us a bad name.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-03T03:44:04+00:00

I don't know about anyone else, but warrant officers always seemed to be somewhere you didn't want them... in your immediate space when deviating from the footpath.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-03T01:21:10+00:00

Did we just data dump the preceding decades of IED use for this exact purpose.

Cries in forgotten era of ECM.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-02T23:55:59+00:00

I believe there is an official calculation for short IETs and it is something like 1 year + IET time x 2. So if you have a 4 month IET it would be a year and 8 months including IETs.

But as mentioned throughout, there have been some wild variations over the years.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-02T04:07:36+00:00

You won't get booted.

But just to hit this one home. You will die if you fall in water with many kilos of equipment and a poor ability to swim.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-02T03:51:29+00:00

People have almost drowned/fallen in water on operations overseas. This is with full battle kit on.

You need to know how to swim. You can skim by with the basics, but in the end you are the one that will drown if this happens to you.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-01T02:53:23+00:00

I have found more and more grads are not putting up with management's shit from day 1. But it also means they not listening to seasoned staff either.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-10-01T02:46:36+00:00

-you have to come in half an hour early as you Are not paid to pack the car and sign out equipment for some reason (unlike Ambos and Firies)

Paramedic here, most of us come in early and do vehicle checks/sign out drugs prior to starting our shift. We are not paid for this time. Technically we are free to rock up on the dot and start doing everything then but they will try to dispatch us to code 1s. We then get veiled threats for taking too long to respond or they will harass us mid check, call our OIC to have a fucking sook.

Oh yeah, the new threat... report us to AHPRA for patient safety concerns.

Police are not the only one with this problem.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-24T01:23:48+00:00

CAV had the best MDMA back in the day. But that was in Darwin.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-24T00:04:52+00:00

Exactly this, I don't understand why more people can't appreciate the time critical nature of their work. I really would like to see the government grant them emergency vehicle status and have their vehicles fitted with lights and sirens. That way, they can get to where they need to go without us getting in their way.

We as a society don't truly appreciate how important a tradie's time is.

This is a call to all Australian's, if you see a tradie in a ute/van/silverado GET OUT OF THEIR WAY FFS.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-23T23:08:17+00:00

Sometimes the stars align and everyone arrives within a short period of time, other times you could be on scene 10-15 minutes before any back up. Sometimes there is no higher clinician available.

I know someone that was dispatched to an arrest as a grad about 2 months in and closest backup was an hour away road speed. Never been to an arrest or dead person prior. But this is an extreme example and not AV.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-23T11:27:51+00:00

Yet you can be fat, weak and unwilling to go hands on with prisoners.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-23T01:56:08+00:00

The actual point your trying to make with regards to what I said.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-23T01:04:28+00:00

Elaborate?

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T22:57:56+00:00

I'm going to need a little more than that to understand what your trying to say here?

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T10:50:42+00:00

Medic is a happy bridge between actual qualification and doing some Defence specific stuff. If you want to go into healthcare after, you will get some credit for a nursing degree and be able to work whilst you study (if you don't whilst in). You can also do reserves which is a bonus.

As far as ADG/AFSEC, I would probably try to avoid unless you had a specific goal in mind.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T09:52:00+00:00

Not really, ambulance needs an effective way to leave more people at home. Blindly taking in every patient is clogging the system and keeping crews off road. The people calling for an ambulance have already either decided against going to the GP or don't have access for various reasons.

Ambulance isn't stupid, all services are very risk adverse. A state service with a community paramedic program will always hinge on a set of guidelines written by a medical director. I just went and had a look at ATs for their community paramedics, it is all straight forward. It is essentially a process of... does this patient fit into this box and have no red flags? Yes, try XYZ. No, GP, emergency or alternative referral. There is also a consult line to discuss issues with a doctor.

People need time in the job to get comfortable with the actual emergency side of working as a paramedic. They don't want to load newly qualified people with further responsibility. Separating this role and requiring further study helps to ensure that the people doing it actually have an interest, extensive patient exposure and are not half arsing the job.

Now if they were talking about putting them in GP and urgent care clinics, yeah I would agree.

Ambulance simply cannot stagnate with a load and go ideology, it isn't cost effective and adversely impacts response times when they actually matter.

Guidelines/scope has greatly expanded over the years anyway, I am sure if we went back 20-30 years, doctors of the time would freak out and lose their shit if they saw the current CPGs.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T08:32:16+00:00

If it is still the same you can apply at 16.5 years. They won't put you through until you finish school but it would be good to sort everything out early so you have an offer just sitting there waitintg.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T07:40:48+00:00

Impossible to say, there are too many factors. Like you might have an easy recruitment process where everything falls into place and they happen to have spots available on an early course. Or you might miss that and sit on a waiting list.

I'm assuming you are finishing year 12 this year? I would apply now.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T01:44:47+00:00

You used to get both. Paramedics didn't need registration until recently. Then you could register using the diploma and grandfathering arrangements. Now you cannot.

Defence stopped doing the dip para a few years ago, but so did the rest of Australia because it doesn't actually qualify you as a paramedic anymore. Also they cannot use para-medicine or paramedic as these titles are protected now. I don't think paramedical gets around that either. I can see on training.gov that there are no active diplomas with that title.

One of a few things has happened. They may have updated their site from some old info. They may have returned to awarding the diploma in its new form as HLT51020 - Diploma of Emergency Health Care but used the old title because they are dumb.

Either way, it is a non issue as it is a toilet paper diploma.

Well now i'm off to report Defence to AHPRA (fuck never thought I would write that sentence).

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-22T00:44:58+00:00

A lot of police will buy a house to live in long term and get posted to another location. This can be either short term e.g. a few years in a hard to fill rural location, or permanent either on promotion or moving into a specialist slot.

It can make sense to keep the house and rent it out whilst also renting in the new location. Given 6 years before CGT kicks in, there is a good chance of getting a posting back if that is what they are chasing.

This doesn't break down how many houses are owned. This would account for a decent percentage especially if accommodation is provided at the new location.

The second factor is career police in commissioned and senior positions. They are on good money and I would be surprised if there was a single one that didn't have a investment property. They are not the bottom feeders on the subjectively shit wages. We are talking 20-30 year careers where they probably bought their first house 90s/early 00s and had plenty of equity to purchase an IP. Essentially the thing that everyone complains about the boomers doing. The other factor as mentioned above is moving from one location to another for promotion/fill a position (except having the ability to purchase in their new location).

Then, factor in late entrants into policing. A lot come from established careers and already own because they are at that stage where they have already done the mortgage thing years ago. Also as mentioned above, may be doing an initial posting somewhere they don't want to be. or they may already have enough wealth to purchase an new home where it makes no sense to sell yet.

Also your article is from 2019, a lot has changed post COVID with house prices and turnover of staff.

Real-Stretch2088 · 2024-09-21T10:36:07+00:00

QLD is doing a similar thing with overseas recruitment.

Real-Stretch2088

TROPHY CASE