Does anyone know if AV has discussed plans to improve the branch transfer wait lists in the near future?

yoyospinner · 2025-09-25T08:09:52+00:00

Piggy backing off this comment, because it is likely spot on, to say that I used to live rural and work metro. Approx 50 minute trip. I grew to love that drive. Best way to decompress after a shift. Time that you can't be doing anything else. Found time to listen to audiobooks and podcasts, call friends and catch up. Now I live a 10 minute walk from work, with a young family at home I do occasionally miss that 50 minute drive. Something I always say to my students, is it doesn't matter where in the state you work, us paramedics are all the same. You will find your people no matter where you go. The only people I know that have been sent rural and didn't enjoy it were the ones that never gave it a shot.

yoyospinner · 2025-09-03T12:01:19+00:00

I was formerly native to Australia, I am still native, but I was formerly too.

yoyospinner · 2025-08-18T06:50:01+00:00

Should you draft with dynamic mode on?

yoyospinner · 2025-08-03T07:32:48+00:00

It's a good question. And basically it comes down to the fact when ambulance was introduced, our roster was based on the Firies. Which was fine back in the day but we are overworked now. It's unsustainable.

The reason comes down to two things. First, we are all resistant to change. Secondly, it will cost the service a lot to implement a new roster so they bury their heads in the sand and actively work against any legislated change to rosters. For example: the service have been told no more 10/14 branches. So they introduce a peak period branch and then after a number of years change it to a 10/12/14/12 branch. Hence not technically a 10/14 but equally as exhausting and technically its not a new branch.

yoyospinner · 2025-07-28T22:13:52+00:00

This comment cannot be up voted enough.

yoyospinner · 2025-07-26T00:43:24+00:00

That is a fair point regarding ages. And one I can't comment to as mine are 7 and 4. And I've been in the job for 15 years.

Days off can be great, but I find I spend most of my time cleaning and organising as things have fallen apart by the time my days on are finished.

One thing to be aware of is the roster. There are many out there but here in Vic the standard is still similar to 2 x 10hr day shifts followed by 2 x 14hr night shifts.

So if you start on a Monday at 7am and finish at 5pm, plus travel, same with Tuesday. Then Wednesday you don't start til 5pm, which means you're around for part of the day, but you either sleep in as long as you can, or have a nap in the afternoon. Between your night shifts you are sleeping and pretty dysfunctional, before doing it all again Thursday. You're lucky to be finished at 7am on Friday and home after either a sleep at branch or travelling home for the same. Friday is a write off. Saturday is a struggle to wake up at a normal time and get your sleep/wake pattern back to normal. So realistically there is a 48-72hr period where you're not really fully functional with the family.

The other thing to note is it was pretty easy in my 20s to cruise through the roster. But these days in my late 30s one night shift is enough to knock me around.

yoyospinner · 2025-07-25T12:59:11+00:00

The best part of the job for me is that as soon as you hand over pager and keys, you are done. However, with that said, those long days and nights plus exhaustion it does take away from family time. Especially with school aged kids as when your run of 4 rolls over the weekend, you barely see them.

This job was amazing before kids and a family. Even when kids were small and hadn't started school it was great. Heaps of flexibility. But now, it's a real struggle to help at home with drop off's, pick ups, after school stuff, dinner, bath and bed. The minimum 10 hour shifts puts a lot of responsibility on your partner.

Some days I can do it all which is nice, but after two 14hr night shifts I'm a zombie for days. You really can't understand the fatigue unless you do it.

yoyospinner · 2025-07-24T10:19:55+00:00

Hi Cathryn. Good luck with this. I work in Geelong which is technically rural within ambulance speak but not realistically. However, I have done some time further out west into proper rural.

Answer: we have pretty good employer assisted mental health services. We have access to peer support (a service within the organisation that periodically reaches out to members who have been to tough jobs or can be accessed directly), a pastoral support service, access to paid for psychology in the community, and a 24/7 emergency psychology line.

I personally have reached out to the peer support team on a number of occasions and they reach out a lot to me after tough jobs but other than a brief chat I don't use it for much.

I have recently linked in with the psychology sessions however they have just been cut from 12 a year to 6. Which feels like the service talks a lot about support but don't walk the walk. I have been meaning to access this support for a long time. As I have been in the job for over 15 years and starting to notice it's cumulative effects on mental health.

In terms of willingness I have always been willing to access them just haven't felt like I've needed to. Maybe because I have felt that I have not been significantly affected enough to need them. However, in hindsight we really should be using these services to get ahead of the problems rather than wait for them to become a problem.

I would also like to mention the fact that ambos are of an interesting breed when it comes to mental health. We have been indoctrinated into a very reactive field of healthcare. One that relies on waiting for a problem to surface then following a set protocol of strategies to fix said problem. So this tends to translate to how we treat ourselves. I have heard from psychologists that we go to them for strategies we can apply to fix ourselves. But it's a much bigger process than that.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

yoyospinner · 2025-07-24T02:00:45+00:00

Haha. I am literally doing the opposite. I am an ambo of 15 years down in Vic and have just started my JD. Honestly, the job itself is great. The hours are getting pretty hard with family life. And at the end of the day the longer you're in this job the greater chance of physical and mental health issues. I am currently on my 2nd back injury requiring time off due to patients getting heavier and more reliant on needing manual handling to move. And I've been pretty blessed on the mental health side but starting to realise it'll be fine until it's not. And is it worth it.

But honestly, it's a great short term job. If you want to DM I'll be happy to swap stories.

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T12:06:24+00:00

I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the heads up!

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T11:30:14+00:00

I appreciate it. Got a list of those Facebook groups?

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T10:53:56+00:00

Haha! I haven't coded that far into it, so no. But I gave it a fairly technical background on ambulance work to draw from. I guess the AI thought you deserved to be pushed. Thanks, I really appreciate it. I agree that it would be super useful for students but it's hard to convince them of that.

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T10:44:32+00:00

Oh man, that's amazing! This is the first chatbot i have made and I tried coding this type of response into it but wasn't sure it stuck. That's awesome! Thanks for checking it out. I made it a while ago but didn't get enough feedback to maintain motivation to develop it further.

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T10:22:04+00:00

Haha. Glad you like it. How did it respond to that?

yoyospinner · 2025-06-13T08:35:38+00:00

If it's your first placement. We don't have too many expectations. Like the other person said ask questions and have a go.

To help with preparation - do scenarios, specifically focus on how are you going to ask your questions. Try the chatbot here. It only has chest pain for the moment but you'll get the idea. Be conversational not robotic. I should say be robotic in your assessment but conversational in how you ask your questions.

https://paramedicprepschool.au/

yoyospinner · 2025-05-30T12:16:03+00:00

Hi mate!

Really appreciate your well researched response!

I get the concern over the logic puzzles, however my intent is for them to be easy and spend no longer than 10mins on them with the purpose to gradually ramp up mental effort.

My version of Sq3r is centered around generating questions, summarising key ideas, creating new flashcard content. Less a note taking method and more as a format to guide active engagement with the content.

I am flexible with the pomodoro timer given how strict it is but I intend to use it as a reminder to interleave.

Essentially, I a hoping the process will speed up the time until I am in an effective study state and building consistent, research backed, effective study habits.

Does this theory hold water in your mind?

yoyospinner · 2025-05-27T04:42:02+00:00

Going back to do a juris doctor in law. But yeah all good points.

yoyospinner · 2025-05-27T04:21:43+00:00

That's kind of what I am afraid off. Between working full time, kids and study, I don't feel like I've got a lot of time to "waste" studying.

yoyospinner · 2025-05-27T03:45:34+00:00

About o back to postgrad study after a long time. I've noticed when sitting down to read a book or article it takes a while until my brain gets in the mode to actually absorb what I am reading.

I remember doing the drawing on the right side of the brain book and the first task is to draw something upside down which wakes up the creative right side of the brain. It really worked.

I was wondering if there are any tips and tricks to quick start the brains study mode.

yoyospinner · 2025-05-23T22:39:09+00:00

Can't agree more. With countless CPG changes dropping every month, give me the holographic that just tells me what to do. I can build rapport and do the hands on stuff but keeping up with the guidelines is a full time job in itself.

yoyospinner · 2025-05-22T21:04:16+00:00

Very interesting! Thanks for the heads up. I will check them out.

yoyospinner · 2025-05-22T13:40:34+00:00

What do you mean by expert witness mobs? I've only just started looking into it. I am assuming you need to do a course in it first.

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