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MICA Paramedic Simon Vendy Impresses Club Members
Guest speaker at our meeting on Wednesday 9th September, 2009 was Ballart MICA Paramedic Simon Vendy.
Simon has worked as a Paramedic for 8 years, spending 6 years in Melbourne prior to moving back Ballarat two years ago.
Simon is the son of club member Rotarian David Vendy (pictured together below).
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Simon is a MICA Paramedic (MICA being Mobile Intensive Care) who works in the Grampians area.
He explained that to become a paramedic involves a 3 year course after which you need to work as a graduate paramedic under supervision.
After he became fully qualified he worked in the Sunshine area for 5 years. As well as being an ambulance officer he was involved in speaking to school students on drug education.
To upgrade to become a MICA member involves a 3 hour exam followed by a ¾ hour practical exam and an interview. This is followed by working under supervision for 9 months and another interview and ¾ hour exam. The overall process takes about 2 years to go right through.
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Unfortunately many find they cannot cope and leave after 1 year; the average being 6½ years - although Simon has been a MICA Paramedic for close to 8½ years now.
There are 18 MICA Paramedics in this region but only one vehicle. They work 2 x 10 hour day shifts followed by 2 x 14 hour night shifts followed by a 4 day break. Because of the limited numbers they are often called in to help during their break time. There are 5 helicopters in the State and they would probably make use of them twice a week on average.
MICA Paramedics perform high-end triage treatment, including administrating anaesthetics. They specialize in cardiology.
Those based locally can be called to Bush Nursing hospitals and other hospitals such as Ararat in cases where the local doctors do not have the expertise, as well as the expected trauma cases where they are often working in adverse conditions under great pressure.
Simon explained that there is great support in coping with their sometimes devastating experiences, although he still finds that memories of the deaths of children stay with him.
Simon has lately been passing his expertise on to others by way of being involved in the selection interviews.
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