Guest mmint Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 Hi, I am a paramedic in the uk looking to get a residency visa in SA, with state sponsorship. I have a degree and a masters in science and am currently finishing a second masters in advanced practice in healthcare...and I have been a paramedic for over 10 years. Can anybody tell me how my qualifications would transfer over to roles in Oz. Would I be qualified to apply for an intensive care paramedic...and indeed whats the difference between a paramedic, ambulance officer and intensive care paramedic? Are there many of these jobs advertised in the local press is SA ambulance service doesn't seem to have any vacancies, according to the web site. Many Thanks!:unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 Cant help with SA , but i know QLD Paramedics regually sponser migrants, or at least they did and from what i recall there wasnt much hassle with qualification exchange unlike in some proffesions.. Maybe Google Qld and see what the score is up this way as i would imagine QLD and SA have pretty similar rules. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Thanks! Are you a paramedic in oz? If so how do you find it compared to the uk? :0) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missus B Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 Hiya Mmint, I am a Paramedic in Newcastle Upon Tyne and have secured a sponsored permanent residency visa with the OLD Ambulance Service. I move over there in October. I already have 2 ex workmates living and working in Brisbane so get a lot of info from them. QLD are still taking applications, I'm not sure about SA. Victoria no longer recruit overseas, but St John's AS in Perth are recruiting. I have been in the job for 13 years. They take all of your qualifications into account but you will not be able to start as an Intensive Care Paramedic. You will start as an Advanced Care Paramedic and you will have too apply to do The Challenge in order to gain a place on an ICP Training course. Your underpinning knowledge has to be top notch and there is a lot of competition for the Challenge and sometimes you can be on the waiting list for 2-3 years before starting your training. Even as a Qualified ECP in the UK, the level of an ICP is above and beyond that of the training of an ECP. The role of Ambulance Officer is similar to Patient Transport to not really relevant. The difference between an ACP and an ICP are down to knowledge, drugs, and you will be giving up some of the skills that you can use as a Paramedic in the UK. You will drop IO, ET, Autonomous Chest Decompression and external jugular cannulation. The drugs you drop are Amiodarone, Atropine and Hydrocortisone. We can only give Narcan and Midazolam i.m. Basically, ICP's do everything that we do in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugby Lad Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Hey mmint, I'm a paramedic (not yet fully qualified) in New South Wales but haven't worked in the UK so no help on comparing there. The thing to remember is that the individual States are so different that giving you an answer is very difficult. I lived in SA when I first arrived and they have a policy of only taking graduates (with massive preference to Flinders University - it is a very parochial state) and mandatory ICP training - but don't know if they waive the graduate requirements for pre-qualified international transferees (I know you are a graduate in science but they specifically state Paramedic Science as the only graduate entry route). There is a big campaign at the moment to get National Registration of Paramedics under the umbrella of APHRA who already run national registration for 10 healthcare professions including nursing. It is being run by ACAP and really needs to happen (you can go onto the ACAP website to see a bit more, generally about the profession in Australia). Some States are obviously against (they love their own power) and also some blokes in the mining business because even the most toothless regulation will see them unable to meet the registration standards. To answer your question Ambulance Officer, Paramedic, ICP etc. are meaningless terms in Australia (speaking nationally and generally - they obviously mean something within each service) as anybody can legally call themselves anything and each qualification is only recognised by your own employer. If you move state your new employer is under no obligation to recognise any of your qualifications and can send you back to induction training. There was an ICP from Qld on my induction course as well as a NSW paramedic who'd taken a career break of over 12 months. They were both just treated as Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) students and so had no advantage over a fresh graduate. In terms of skills here in NSW there is a real drive to give all new skills to P1s (essentially all paramedics less those still training like myself) so the skills gap between P1s and ICPs is getting very small - essentially ETT and IV midaz for sedation. Other states will be different. I worked in South Africa and had a lot more skills and drugs at a lower level there but having spoken to guys in the UK I had far more than them at a similar level as well. The job is, clinically, really changing for the better at a fast pace here in NSW, we've just been given thrombolytics. The guys all tell me that until about 2000 they had nothing and were literally "pain-relief, posture, drive" unless an ICP but now being a P1 is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugby Lad Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Mmint, don't know how set you are on SA but ACT Ambulance Service are advertising for ICPs from inter-state at the moment. No idea if they'll take International transferees. The e-mail address for enquiries is ESAAmbulance_Workforceplanning@act.gov.au or look at http://www.ambulance.act.gov.au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Hi, Thanks for that... How long ago did you apply? Did you get permanent residency visa, then apply to qld ambulance service? Did you go through vet assess? If so what sort of questions did they ask in the interview? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Wow, in the UK 'paramedic' is a protected title, as we are all registered with the HCPC... This means appart from a few Trust having different drugs/ protocols, a paramedic is a paramedic! In the Trust I work for we have a clinical leaership structure with paramedics, senior paras, advanced paras, and consultant paras...each has more clinical responsibily to lead at incidents and a few different drugs or techniques they can use. It's a new thing in the uk, and other Trusts don't have the same thing... So I guess it doesn't matter where you work and how well regulated you are... People just like to do their own thing! :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Thanks for that ...but ACT wasn't on our list of states... We really wanted qld but was told by our maras agent that they were no longer offering sponsorship, but SA was. Ideally we would work there for the 2years they require before possibly moving.:daydreaming: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missus B Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Hi, Thanks for that... How long ago did you apply? Did you get permanent residency visa, then apply to qld ambulance service? Did you go through vet assess? If so what sort of questions did they ask in the interview? I applied 2 years ago. Everything takes so long to get going. Lots of form filling and then I went to Brisbane for assessment and interview. I got the job offer a month later, which is standard. I then accepted and had to do the Vetassess. I passed the Vetassess in March, having applied last November. I went for my medicals in May and got my permanent visa in June. The QLD ambulance service have sponsored me. You have to be sponsored by an employer first. You can't apply for your own visa as a Paramedic, without sponsorship. They asked the usual questions. Why I wanted to live in Oz, why I wanted to work for them. The interview is an assessment in itself. You are given a question sheet, some clinical, some not. You are given a certain amount of time to write your answers. The sheet is then taken from you and given to the interview panel. You are then invited into the room, and they go over your questions and give you a bit of a grilling about your answers. Really nice people though. The practical assessment was stressful. They go into great depth but they really respect our practical knowledge. So as long as you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. The multi choice is again, very detailed. I would suggest going on the QLD AS site and downloading their drug protocals and studying them. They are very big on cardiac and the nervous system. Get to know your nerves and if the spinal cord was severed at a particular level, what would be involved and affected. The vetassess isn't the interview. It is there for everyone, to prove their qualifications, in order to apply for a visa. It's is completely separate to the QLD AS. It is part of the Australian Immigration process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Hmm, Thanks I guess I misunderstood the agent who said that the state sponsored you. I Was planning on doing the vetasses bit first myself to save a bit of money, but now I am not so such I know what I am doing! Did you use an agent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missus B Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Hmm, Thanks I guess I misunderstood the agent who said that the state sponsored you. I Was planning on doing the vetasses bit first myself to save a bit of money, but now I am not so such I know what I am doing! Did you use an agent? If you get Employer Sponsorship, they pay for everything. You will pay for your vetassess and medicals upfront, but they should reimburse you in your relocation costs. I am getting the money back when I get to Brisbane. Why are you using an agent? You will get Sponsorship in Australia, as it is cheaper to bring qualified Paramedics over from the UK, than to train them from scratch. By using an agent, you will be spending unnecessary money, nevermind, how much your visa will cost you. It will take the same length of time as it has taken me, but you will have paid out an awful lot of money that you won't get back. I think you need to research this a bit more and I am more than happy to help. The starting point would be to apply for some jobs. Try St Johns Ambulance Service in Perth. I think they still do skype interviews, so you won't have to travel to Oz for an interview. Try the QAS. I think they are still taking applications for Brisbane and Cairns. Victoria are not sponsoring. But you may have some luck with Adelaide or SA. Basically, agents are there for people who cannot get Employer sponsorship. Employer Nominated Sponsorship is a relatively uncomplicated process and the Employer does most of the complicated paperwork. So, why pay out $15-20k paying for a visa, when you won't even have a job when you get there? Set the job up, they pay for the visa and you're $15000 better off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mmint Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Hi, My family are on the gold coast and that is where we wanted to go, but they said we would be better applying for a perm visa on our own so that we would be entitled to healthcare, schooling etc and we could get a job when we got there. We contacted their agent who said Qld state wasn't sponsoring any more, but SA,WA, and ACT were. We figured SA for a few years would work... Hence I set about looking into the vetassess process. I ve looked at Qld website and from what I could deduce you needed a oz visa to apply for jobs there. What visa are you going on, do you get healthcare, and schooling etc ? Where did you find out about the job? Do you know if they are still taking people on? Heaven forbid but if you lost your job, would your visa be revoked? sorry to ask so many questions, but it sounds like you have gone about things in a much better ( and much cheaper) way! Many, Many Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missus B Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Your agent is wrong and your family is misinformed. When you are sponsored, you will be sponsored on an ENS 121. This is a permanent residency visa. I am now in possession of one, after getting sponsored. When you have a permanent residency visa, you are entitled to everything that an Australian Citizen is entitled to i.e. healthcare, schooling etc. You are not looking for the QLD State to sponsor you. You are looking for the Queensland Ambulance Service to sponsor you, as they would be your employer, if you want to live on the Gold Coast. Incidentally, there are zero jobs on the Gold Coast, but you could put in for a transfer after a couple of years and keep your fingers crossed. The QAS never advertise for overseas Paramedics. I emailed the recruitment department and enquired. They sent me an application form, and that started the ball rolling. I don't know if they are still taking people on. Probably. I know one of my workmates is in the process of applying. You will have to email them like I did. I am committed to working for them for 3 years, in order to keep my visa. If I got sacked, I might lose my visa, but it is unlikely. If I was made redundant, I would not lose my visa. I know of people who have left the QAS after a year, to return to the UK, and they haven't revoked their visa. You really should be sticking with the information from people who have been through the process of Employer Sponsorship. It is in an agent's interest to make money from you, so you may not always get the correct information. Employer sponsorship is a much simpler and cheaper process than state sponsorship. Even if you can't get a job in Brisbane, you could get a job somewhere in QLD and put in for a transfer after a couple of years. There are definitely jobs available in Cairns, Townsville and parts of Brisbane, which is only 40 mins from the Gold Coast. Don't worry about the questions. But try and do some research. The internet is full of information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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