Australia to Canada

[overseasbound]

Hi all,

By the end of this year I will have studied and worked here in Australia for close to three years at an ALS level with the ambulance service. Would love to head overseas...have heard some pretty good things about Canada in general, as well as some of their ambulance services. Now, there are no perfect services out there, but it would be great if you guys could give me a bit of a feel what to expect. Thinking either Toronto region or Vancouver - i want big city EMS, not rural. I've read all the relevant pages on the web, but still some things are written on the complicated side.

Toronto (incl. Peel etc): Have heard they only do PCP intakes, although I may be able to get my ACP qualifications. How long do you need to be a PCP for prior to becoming an ACP? What is it like working as an PCP - all emergency work, or transfers? Skillset seems pretty basic (I know I know, not all of our job is pure skills...)

BCAS: What are the chances of getting in to Vancouver directly? Don't want to apply, get in, and have to sit in a log cabin responding to a single callout in three days. Maybe when I'm older, but not now. Have heard though that they take direct intakes of ACPs though.

Has anybody else gone through the equivalency of becoming a PCP/ACP?

Thanks in advance everybody!

[Happiness]

Vancouver is one of the most desired stations in BC. There is also Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, Vancouver for Air. We also have Vicotoria and Nanamio along with the others for ground. Here is the website for you. And so you know I dont live in a log cabin lol

http://www.bcas.ca/

[BEorP]

Hi all,

By the end of this year I will have studied and worked here in Australia for close to three years at an ALS level with the ambulance service. Would love to head overseas...have heard some pretty good things about Canada in general, as well as some of their ambulance services. Now, there are no perfect services out there, but it would be great if you guys could give me a bit of a feel what to expect. Thinking either Toronto region or Vancouver - i want big city EMS, not rural. I've read all the relevant pages on the web, but still some things are written on the complicated side.

Toronto (incl. Peel etc): Have heard they only do PCP intakes, although I may be able to get my ACP qualifications. How long do you need to be a PCP for prior to becoming an ACP? What is it like working as an PCP - all emergency work, or transfers? Skillset seems pretty basic (I know I know, not all of our job is pure skills...)

BCAS: What are the chances of getting in to Vancouver directly? Don't want to apply, get in, and have to sit in a log cabin responding to a single callout in three days. Maybe when I'm older, but not now. Have heard though that they take direct intakes of ACPs though.

Has anybody else gone through the equivalency of becoming a PCP/ACP?

Thanks in advance everybody!

My knowledge of GTA EMS is a few years old, so this may not all be accurate now. To give you something to go on in case no one else has more up to date knowledge, I figured I would tell you what I (think I) know. If you're looking at the GTA, that would include the City of Toronto, Peel Region to the west as you have mentioned, York Region to the north, and Durham region to the east. The job market is tight in Ontario these days, but these services are always hiring due to their growing populations (especially in Peel) and normal turnover (still lots of competition, but at least I don't see any of these services not hiring for a year). I don't know what is it like in your state, but in Ontario you will need to test with the Ministry of Health for equivalency and then separately apply for jobs. In the GTA, you will need to do the centralized testing process (assuming they still do this). This makes it a bit easier to apply to a bunch of GTA services, but it also means if you blow the written or your scenarios then you're out for a year.

I suspect (and have no real evidence to back this up) that you would have a much easier time getting recognized as an ACP in Peel than Toronto. I have heard that Toronto is pretty happy with their number of ACPs and have even slowed down on training their own people (and Toronto being Toronto, they like people they train themselves). Peel on the other hand seems to be putting new hires through ACP school within just a few years of getting hired (likely a greater need due to the growing population and EMS service). I don't know whether there is a set time they would want to see you as a PCP before going ACP.

Again with the disclaimer that I'm not in Ontario anymore and am a bit out of the loop, in Toronto as a PCP you would expect to work with another PCP. Toronto actually does their own system of levels where PCP is "level I" and then PCP with IVs is a "level II" and then ACP is "level III." Generally "level IIIs" work with "level IIs" (ACPs don't like working with just a normal "level I" PCP since they can't start lines for them). I don't know whether this has changed since I left the area, but I believe there was talk that they would finally get rid of level IIs and that they had stopped training them. Since you would likely be working PCP/PCP in a setting with lots of ACPs, you would probably end up doing more low acuity calls (or at least having ACP backup on much of the high acuity stuff). Due to the high numbers of calls though, there will surely be some good stuff that you get as a PCP crew in Toronto. Unfortunately, with the PCP skillset our treatment is generally to drive fast. In Peel, I suspect that you would work PCP/ACP (again, just a guess based on old bits of information). If this is the case, you have basically just been turned into a very over-educated driver since your ACP partner will attend on anything remotely serious. Not really a great situation if you got into the job to provide medical care!

You could also consider the Ottawa Paramedic Service... not as big a service as Toronto, but definitely an urban centre.

This is probably true for EMS anywhere, but there are often a lot of organizational stressors in Ontario EMS. Just be aware that it will not be perfect, though it could still be a very good experience for you. Where in Australia are you from?

Sorry, I don't have any knowledge of the equivalency process other than hearing that it is challenging. I wouldn't see an Aussie paramedic having any trouble with it though.

[HellsBells]

You also may want to consider coming to Alberta. We have two large urban cities; Calgary and Edmonton. Both of which have one million+ people.

If you are an ACP in Australia it should be possible to get equal certification here. I believe a the paramedic level is fairly comparable here

. For full details go to collegeofparamedics.org

The job market isnt bad either. You may have to start out in a casual position. However, most of our casuals get close to full times hours, just not any benefits. Typically you should get promoted to fulltime witin one to two years.

Cheers..

. P.S. It gets really cold here.

[cprted]

I've also heard through the grapevine that their are labour mobility agreements in the works between Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If anything ever comes of those rumours it could make moving across the Pacific easier for those in our line of work.