Emergency nurse jobs and courses. Emergency nursing news, articles, events and opportunities Australia wide.

Victorian paramedics are the highest trained paramedics in Australia but are paid up to 30 per cent less than their interstate colleagues, according to the ambulance workers’ union.

Paramedics have taken protected industrial action with work bans, ranging from wearing campaign t-shirts on the job to refusing any upward relieving of managers’ roles, after the latest negotiations in the eight-month wage dispute turned sour. Read more…

Around-the-clock child care will be available to selected Queensland nurses and paramedics at three sites across the state as part of a Federal Government trial of flexible care for shift-workers.

Under the initiative, the Queensland Nurses’ Union and United Voice will work with Family Day Care Australia to pair nurses and paramedics with teams of family day care educators for overnight and weekend care, with the capacity to also cater for last minute shift changes. Read more…

Never be caught without your neuro torch again or have to borrow someone else’s.

The Neuro Torch mobile phone app, gives every doctor, nurse, paramedic or other health care worker immediate access to their own neuro torch. For just 99 cents! Read more…

“You must see some terrible things.”

This is a statement paramedics hear all too often, one paramedic recently wrote. Sadly, it’s also the truth.

“We see broken bones, blood and gore. We hold the hands of the elderly as they take their last breath so that they don’t die alone and we see young life snatched away in the most horrible circumstances.

“In a cruel twist of fate, paramedics, whose goal is to help people in their community, all too often aren’t able to help themselves.” Read more…

Victorian paramedics are resorting to the use of online pseudonyms for private chat sites and podcasts to discuss and communicate workplace issues.

These activities comes amid claims that the new social media policy by Ambulance Victoria threatens termination and litigation against paramedics who speak out on working conditions.

The new social media policy was introduced after paramedics released three podcasts airing grievances about the organisation, and comes as the union considers industrial action over an unresolved enterprise bargaining agreement. Read more…

One woman turned up at the emergency department complaining that her husband would not have sex with here.

Another arrived wanting ED staff to change her baby’s nappy, while another arrived in an ambulance during the early hours of the morning to complain that they couldn’t sleep.

These are a few of the stranger ED presentations at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Read more…

Neonatal ICU’s in Melbourne and experiences dire nursing shortages due to a shortfall in funding from the government, according to the ANF.

The neonatal units of 4 hospitals, including the Royal Women’s and Royal Children’s are routinely forced to turn away new patients, resulting in some suck babies having to fly interstate for medical aid.

Paul Gilbert, acting Victorian secretary for the ANF, said the skills shortage in Victoria can be linked to the current state governments newly introduced funding regime. Read more…

A team of QLD paramedics are inspiring fellow paramedics across the country to broaden their horizons.

Comprising of lead paramedic Neil Noble, Colin Allen, Gary Berkowitz, Amy Michelle Craike, and Alan Mountford, Team Australia EMS recently won Singapore’s 2012 Professional Rescue Competition.

The team of paramedics has been making a name for itself internationally after attending the 2011 and 2012 EMS Today Conference and the JEMS Games, both in the US– and has set it sights to return to the U.S.A next year. Read more…

On Christmas Eve last year, Paramedic Michael Wilson made the ultimate sacrifice for a complete stranger in need of help.

Now, 8 months later, the NSW SCAT paramedic is being honoured with a Pride of Australia Medal in the Heroism category in the awards for 2012.

A paramedic for over 15 years, Michael died after a winch line was severed during a complicated rescue operation at Carrington Falls on New South Wale’s south coast. Read more…

After working for more than 26 years of in hospitals, midwife Debby Jones needed a change.

Flicking through a copy of Nursing Careers Allied Health magazine one morning, Debby found exactly what she was after. A job vacancy advertisement for a flight nurse with New South Wales Air Ambulance set Debby on an exciting and unexpected new career path.
Read more…