My Account
After 16 years as an Intensive Care Paramedic with St John, Megan Fairley says she has seen “every bizarre accident possible”, as well as dealing with a number of dangerous situations. However, she admits to still taking a deep breath sometimes before stepping in to do her job. She spoke with Terry Moore about the satisfaction and challenges of managing Rodney’s four ambulance stations, while maintaining her life saving skills and caring for her family.
There’s no doubt that the job of an ambulance officer is getting more dangerous. Especially with drugs involved, which can cause some bizarre, irrational, violent behaviours. Drug use has spread throughout the community a lot more – it used to be heroin and cocaine, which were largely an urban problem but now the P labs have moved into rural communities. Access to weapons has also increased. Sometimes the scenario that people call in and what’s actually happening can be two completely different things. Unexpectedly you’re faced with someone who has been shot or stabbed or there’s a person wielding a machete. That information may have slipped through the cracks and before you know it you are in a scene that’s potentially unsafe for the crews. We’ve had to retreat a few times and seek urgent Police help. You have to use your street sense – say if the house lights are not on, or you hear yelling.
It takes good people skills to diffuse a situation – something the Police are highly trained in. In Rodney we have 13 brigades that can be first reponders: we work closely with the fire service as well as Police and Coastguard.
I joined St John in 1999, relieving all around Auckland. It’s an amazing job and never boring. I worked my way up to Intensive Care Paramedic, which is the biggest skill base in the service. You can intubate and give a wide range of drugs in all kinds of emergency situations. For the last two years I’ve been Territory Manager for Rodney overseeing 38 paid staff and 120 volunteers. It’s a 2000 square km territory, with four ambulance stations Although it’s a management job there’s still a lot of hands on work – and I’m often a backstop. A crew gets there first and does basic life support and I respond clinically if needed, which I do five or six times a week. Plus one day a month I’m on an ambulance to be with the staff and make sure I am keeping up my skills. You have the chance to make a real difference in people’s lives. Sometimes you are the last person they talk to, which is a privilege. Every job is a challenge in some way and the possibilities for medical complications are so vast.
When I left school I went nursing and liked the people contact but not being inside all the time. I travelled for a couple of years with an Australian friend. We ended up as rouseabouts in a sheep shearing gang in Colorado – I’d never worked with sheep before but we were down to our last $2 and needed a job. After that I went to Alaska and ended up on a salmon trolling vessel for about five months. I always loved the sea and surfing and after the salmon fishing I thought I’d like to work on the sea, but not just killing things – I’m more interested in conservation. I did a Diploma in Marine Studies at Mt Maunganui, which included diver instructor certification, and while I was there we sailed a Tall Ship. The owner asked whether we’d like to sail his ship to Indonesia so he could take part in a race. I was planning to teach diving in the tropics so that was perfect. I ended up in a tiny island off Lombok teaching tourists to dive. Life was easy and fun and I did that for three years. When I came back home I was wondering what to do next. I saw an ambulance one day and thought maybe I could use my registered nurse qualification – but in a way that would not be boring after living that Bohemian tropical lifestyle.
My family’s from Te Atatu but had a beach house at Snells Beach, so I always had strong ties with the Rodney area.
I have two kids – a daughter that’s 14 and a boy of 11. I’m a single mum, but their dad and I share the family responsibilities. I have the best area in Auckland to manage – no doubt about it – but it’s very busy. We don’t have very good boundaries on our hours, so my phone can start at 7am and I can still be getting texts at 9pm. We often end up working at weekends to cover events. Volunteer recruitment is also done in the weekends and there are a lot of evening meetings. It can be hard to juggle with the kids, but I have got better at it over the years. I do a lot of SUP and kiteboarding. Those sports used to be a huge part of my life and since I started in this role two years ago time for recreation has been hard to find. You sure notice your arm muscles when you haven’t done it for a while. Ambulance work is physically demanding and SUP is good for core and back strength. It seems like every patient lives down a right of way or on the third storey and you are often carrying people out of houses down steep accessways.
I find grieving families one of the hardest things to witness and be part of. Any premature death is hard to deal with, no matter how long you’ve been in the job. It tears at the heartstrings – especially when you have kids of your own.
Once you have your own family, awareness of your personal safety also increases. We teach our staff that their safety comes first. There’s no point in a rescuer being injured as well. When I go home I have got better at switching off. The only time it’s hard to make that mental break is when you think you could have done something better. That plays on your mind. Self-reflecting is an important part of the job because it helps you maintain good practice. I think I’m realistic when it comes to my own children – they need to be able to take risks and learn from them, but because I’ve seen every bizarre accident possible, I sometimes give them quite unusual warnings such as – “be careful that brake handle doesn’t end up through your cheek!”
Silverdale station’s biggest issue is response time because we have to do a loop around Silverdale to get to Dairy Flat or Helensville – it adds two or three minutes. Whangaparaoa Peninsula is also a challenge. When we can, we base an ambulance at Manly Fire Station, which has lead to some great saves. St John is looking at where we can put extra resources in Auckland and Whangaparaoa Peninsula would be one place that we’d consider putting something more permanent. In genuinely life threatening situations every minute makes a difference, and so it’s not good that it takes at least 15 minutes to get from Silverdale to Gulf Harbour or Army Bay. That’s why we collaborate so closely with First Responders.
For the first couple of years as an ambulance officer you feel quite scared all the time because you haven’t seen that much yet and wonder whether you’ll be able to cope. As times goes on you realise that the worst that can happen is that they might need CPR, and you know what you need to do. But there are still scenes where I take a deep breath before I get out of the car. Even though you see some sad things, you also get to share wonderful moments such as babies being born and there’s that sense of making a difference. People turn up with cakes, cards and chocolates to say thanks. It can be an exhausting role because you are constantly taking care of someone else’s needs, so it’s nice when people give something back.
