Paramedics to compete for Australian title
Two Southland based St John staff are set to represent the country at the FernoSim Australasian competitions later this month on the Gold Coast.
Emergency medical technician Sam Mokomok, intensive care paramedic Rowan Hook, of Invercargill, and intensive care paramedic Craig Jones, of Christchurch, make up the three person team.
The National Emergency Care Competition involved high-risk emergency simulations where skills of paramedics were assessed and tested.
Hook said the team fought some stiff competition from throughout the country taking out the national event earlier this year.
The team had been training to compete in a simulated mass casualty incident, which could be a mock boating accident or any kind of event, Mokomoko said.
The aim for the trio was to win the top spot and to learn as much as they could while there. ‘‘I think it’s a combination of things – communication and always working towards bettering yourself,’’ Mokomoko said.
Hook said that the team would not know what the details of the mass casualty incident was until the competition had begun.
The competition is only half of the reason the trio are going to Australia, they are also attending world class training programmes.
‘‘We’ll be meeting with a whole bunch of people who do what we do around the world.
‘‘Part of being the winning team, St John are putting us through some courses we couldn’t do in New Zealand,’’ Hook said.
‘‘We’ll be meeting with a whole bunch of people who do what we do around the world.’’ Rowan Hook