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Speaker 1: Well, the first cohort of paramedics trained in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territories next to start placements with Saint John Ambulance next year.

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Speaker 1: Ten students are due to complete their studies this year

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Speaker 1: after Charles Darwin University launched the Bachelor of Paramedicine in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. So they're going to work, well, they'll

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Speaker 1: go on to work i should say, six hundred hours

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Speaker 1: in Darwin and Alla Springs under the supervision of experienced paramedics.

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Speaker 1: And joining us on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: bit more about the program is cdu Vice Chancellor of

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Speaker 1: the Faculty of Health, Professor Dominic Upton. Good morning to you, professor.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you this morning? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really well, thank you so much for your time. Now,

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Speaker 1: why exactly did c do you launch the program? Was

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Speaker 1: it about growing our own.

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Speaker 2: Exactly right, Katie. I mean it's about growing around. It's

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Speaker 2: about making sure that we have opportunities for local territorians

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Speaker 2: to become a paramedic, but also to make sure that

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Speaker 2: when we do recruit paramedic into the territories, they stay here.

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Speaker 2: They're all like to stay in the past, they were,

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Speaker 2: you know, we recruited excellent paramedic staff from down South

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Speaker 2: and other states and territories. But they've come up here.

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Speaker 2: They come for a couple of years and not really

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Speaker 2: appreciate what the territory was like. As you know, there'd

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Speaker 2: be an opportunity for them to go back, so they would.

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Speaker 2: But now we've got people who were born abred in

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Speaker 2: the territory undertaking their training and the territory and staying

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Speaker 2: in the territory so that we're growing our own and

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Speaker 2: making sure that they're good, proper paramedic staff.

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Speaker 1: For same John, I reckon, it's an excellent thing to do.

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Speaker 1: I think that we need to make sure that we

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Speaker 1: are growing our own. But also it's about giving our

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Speaker 1: kids from the Northern Territory those wonderful opportunities.

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Speaker 2: Correct, correct, I mean, And before if you wanted to

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Speaker 2: be a paramedic, you'd have to go down south until

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Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, and then you know what

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Speaker 2: it's like. You might go to another university, whether it

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Speaker 2: in Sydney or Adelaide or wherever you might find that

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Speaker 2: you like that more than Darwin, or you might find

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Speaker 2: love and in not return. Yeah, now they can stay

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Speaker 2: here and they can build and stay with their family,

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Speaker 2: stay with their communities and really sort of live out

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Speaker 2: their best life here and contribute to the health and

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Speaker 2: welfare of the whole of the territory.

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Speaker 1: Professor, tell me what role does Saint John Ambulance they

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Speaker 1: implay in the degree or you know, in making sure

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Speaker 1: that they sort of get out there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So we developed the programming conjunction with Saint John.

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Speaker 2: It was, you know, they needed more staff. We need

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Speaker 2: to provide the opportunities. We're about developing opportunities for students,

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Speaker 2: making sure that we can grow the health workforce. But

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Speaker 2: as part of many health professions, and paramedicine is one

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Speaker 2: of them, they have to students have to have some

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Speaker 2: placements in real life opportunities. So we have great facilities

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Speaker 2: here where people can do simulated training. We can pretend

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Speaker 2: people are in a road crash or have had a

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Speaker 2: half attack, or have collapsed or whatever. But they need

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Speaker 2: that real life experience and that's what our partnership with

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Speaker 2: Saint John offers. They can go out on the road

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Speaker 2: with trained paramedics. They can see what clinical experiences like

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Speaker 2: and they can support and observe and see what really happens.

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Speaker 1: And is it then a guarantee that they'll go on

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Speaker 1: to work with Saint John's or could some of those

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Speaker 1: graduates actually still opt to move into state.

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Speaker 2: Yeap, Look, Sat John here, I've got a program, so

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Speaker 2: all of our potential graduates have students at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Graduates at the end of this year will be able

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Speaker 2: to apply and have applied to Saint John Here and Darwin.

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Speaker 2: They'll go through the normal recruitment process and they can

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Speaker 2: stay and they'll not be offered a post with Saint

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Speaker 2: john and in Darwin or Alice, but just as equally

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Speaker 2: they can apply. They're fully trained, they're fully approved by

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Speaker 2: the Paramedicine Board, so they could go down to that

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Speaker 2: as well, but we're hoping they're more like to stay

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Speaker 2: up here.

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Speaker 1: Now being a new degree. Are there any changes flagged

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Speaker 1: for the program for next year or are you thinking

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Speaker 1: that you might be able to get more people on

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Speaker 1: board to do it. How's it all sort of tracking?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? No, no, no, it is really going well. I mean

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Speaker 2: we've got we have about between twenty and thirty as

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Speaker 2: students staff each year, and so we have those in

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Speaker 2: the second sorry, in the first and the second year,

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Speaker 2: as well as twenty in the final years, some of

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Speaker 2: those decide to do things part time because they have

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Speaker 2: other commitments. So that's why there's only ten at this

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Speaker 2: current state, but there's going to be a regular pipeline

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Speaker 2: coming through from here on in.

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Speaker 1: Well, I reckon it's a really good news story. I

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Speaker 1: do think that it's wonderful to see territory and sort

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Speaker 1: of joining and doing this course and you know, and

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Speaker 1: then hopefully staying here in the territory. Is this I mean,

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Speaker 1: is this something that Charles Daleen University is sort of

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Speaker 1: trying more so to do at this point to facilitate

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Speaker 1: more of that homegrown or more of those homegrown professionals.

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Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. So I mean we've introduced a

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Speaker 2: new courses in occupational therapy speech pathology. Those should be

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Speaker 2: so the ots have all sorts of graduated. Speech will be.

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Speaker 2: Speech pathologists will be graduating the end of this year dartetics,

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Speaker 2: And next year we're starting our first physiotherapy program. So again,

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Speaker 2: school leaders who want to become physiotherapists can apply and

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Speaker 2: join and in a couple of years when they completed

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Speaker 2: their studies, we will be entering the workforce in the

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Speaker 2: territory as physiotherapists, and of course you know we're looking

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Speaker 2: forward to hearing the announcement on medicine as well anytime soon.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, hopefully we do hear that soon, and we'll

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Speaker 1: probably catch up with you again at some point on

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Speaker 1: that one. Professor, thank you so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: No worries. Thank you, Katie, thank you you too,