A drive to help people - meet Paramedic Gemma

Gemma Sanderson decided she wanted to become a paramedic at 11 years of age after witnessing her mum break her leg.

It was a particularly nasty break with an open fracture. The ambulance crew who treated her mum at the time talked Gemma through exactly what they were doing and, in her words, ‘they were amazing.’ Gemma says she knew from that moment on she would be a paramedic.

Everything Gemma did after that was centred on becoming a paramedic, she tried her best at school and loved English, mathematics and science – particularly biology. Alongside doing voluntary work with St John Ambulance, she studied public services at college before working with disabled children, transporting them safely to and from school which she loved. This progressed to Gemma joining our patient transport service where she stayed for a year and a half before leaving to study paramedic science at Coventry University.

Gemma graduated and started life as a paramedic in Team NWAS in 2012 and has never looked back. She now works in one of our urgent care practitioner (UCP) roles – a team of 12 nurses and paramedics.

“Working as one of our UCPs, we rotate between road shifts and working in the Clinical Hub. We use our unique skills to care for patients in their homes. We have training in wound closure which means carrying extra wound dressings and equipment to help avoid an unnecessary hospital attendance.”

“As UCPs, we spend half of our time responding to a wide range of calls in our response cars, including urgent and less urgent calls, providing assessment, treatment and referrals for patients that can be managed in the community. The other half of our time we’re in the Clinical Hub, assessing patients with less serious conditions over the telephone and supporting ambulance crews with clinical advice.”

With access to a mobile phone and laptop when operational, the team is currently trialling a combination of telephone triage and face to face assessment. This is ideal for patients that cannot be assessed or treated safely over the telephone.

“We will ring a patient back to see what help is needed. If we feel we can help, for example if somebody had a head wound and needs it gluing, we will attend and free up an ambulance so it can go to a higher priority call which could be a life-threatening situation such as a cardiac arrest.”

Gemma says she loves her job and has recently completed her Masters in Advanced Clinical Practice.

“It was a hard slog working full time and doing my masters over four years but worth it. I love my job and I love the fact that every day is different. I love talking to people and finding out their stories, and I love the fact that Team NWAS is supportive – we all have good banter and look out for one another as we know all too well the emotions that each other is going through.”