Like many young people in their senior year at high school, I distinctly remember the pressure and expectation to decide on my university course preferences. At 17 years of age, making this decision about the rest of my life was daunting. I knew that I wanted to do something in healthcare or medicine, and had aspirations to be a doctor. Medicine as a career choice was supported by my mother who was a registered nurse and midwife, and felt that nurses were still ‘handmaidens’ to doctors.
Somewhat fortuitously, I didn't get into medicine but was offered a place in a medical science programme. I learned even more about myself during this time than I did of the intended curriculum. Learning that I am a natural extrovert, working in a hospital routine diagnostic laboratory with very little social interaction would not be for me.
A blessing in disguise—for which I am eternally grateful—was a chance conversation with a family friend who mentioned that the ambulance was recruiting, and asked whether I had thought about applying. I was working in a retail community pharmacy at the time, so was looking for full-time work and thought that it would be a good fit for me: people and health care.
Within 3 weeks of submitting a handwritten application, I was offered a position as a student paramedic. I had just turned 22 years old.
Industrially, the ambulance service at the time was evolving as paid staff were being employed to replace a large volunteer workforce. The community was largely enamoured by the altruism of the volunteer workforce who provided their labour as part of their commitment to the charitable organisation. Therefore, the newly hired (and now paid) employees were seen as taking away that privilege.
Before my commencement, women in operational roles were a novelty. There were only a handful of women working in the communications centre and administration, as well as a few who had been promoted to a station officer position in operations. All in all, there were less than five women in frontline or middle management roles.
After finishing my diploma training, I went on to enrol in a top-up undergraduate degree. This degree was the first of its kind in Australia, which was modelled after the University of Hertfordshire programme. In those days, distance education meant watching VHS video and listening to cassette tape recordings, which were delivered by post. Students dialled (using a landline) telephone for a group conference call tutorial. The best thing was going to the week-long residential workshops for practical and theory components, which was a great way to network with like-minded colleagues.
Being one of the first graduates of the degree programme allowed me to consider my next steps in terms of postgraduate study options. Initially, I thought about another health-related course such as management. At that time, I had applied for and was successful obtaining a clinical team leader position, so it made sense to gain extra qualifications in frontline leadership. However, I knew operational leadership roles meant continuing with shift work.
I decided that I wanted to do something different to management and leadership coursework. At this time, the service was undergoing a reorganisation and restructuring with the appointment of a new chief executive officer. The buzz word at the time was ‘organisational culture’—something I had studied in the top-up degree which piqued my interest. I ended up enrolling in a postgraduate research programme in which the focus of my thesis was a description of ambulance organisational culture.
At the time, many emergency service workers were partnered with others in emergency services. I too was married to a paramedic who was also in a team leader position, so was wondering how to balance the competing demands of career and shift work, with likely family caring responsibilities.
The increasing number of women in the vocational training programme meant that management had to consider more flexible options for family-friendly working arrangements, such as part-time, maternity leave and solutions for those caring for sick children. It wasn't long before one of my colleagues ‘pressed to test’ management with ‘sharing a line’ as a part-time working arrangement between herself and another colleague. This was the late 1990s when, thankfully, flexible work arrangements became increasingly common. This meant that my female colleagues had options when returning to work from maternity leave.
It wasn't too much longer before I had to think about my own maternity leave from my team leader role. Five months into my maternity leave, I was offered a 1-year secondment research and project position with the executive management team. This was a real opportunity as the role included acting as ambulance board secretary and ministerial liaison. However, I was a new parent, with a 5-month-old baby and a shift-working partner, and now being asked to go back to full-time work. However, sometimes you have to take up an opportunity and make it work. It did work but was not without its hurdles, as many shift-working parents would know. Finding childcare when required at an early morning meeting, and when your partner has a late call on a night shift, is just one example.
A research thesis also does not write itself and is challenging between working and managing a young family. Thankfully, I had very supportive ‘study buddies’ who got me through the tough times, listening to my woes of trying to balance these competing demands. At these challenging times, I had a sense that I needed to complete the thesis and that it would lead me to the next opportunity.
I never returned to my operational clinical team leader role after completing the 1-year secondment. Instead, I took part-time roles at the state ambulance headquarters in projects, policy and then education. It was this last role that led to me being targeted by the local university for curriculum development and, later, teaching in the paramedic undergraduate degree programme.
With the eventual completion of my thesis and the conferment of my doctorate, I was reminded by a colleague who said that I was Australia's first female paramedic to have done so. This realisation still makes me uncomfortable—possibly because of the Australian attributes to ‘get the job done’ and not to ‘get too big for my shoes’.