Ambulance Technician Emma Newbrooks and Duty Commander and Paramedic Peter Schmidt, both from EMAS’ Leicestershire A&E division, have starred in two new short films, aimed at showing secondary school pupils what a career in the ambulance service entails.
Working in partnership with the Royal College of Paramedics and student careers destination platform Unifrog, used by 4,000 schools nationally, Emma and Peter bravely stepped in front of the camera to share their stories, insights and experiences, creating two visual testimonies about their different career journeys.
Emma, a former Army Dog Handler, spoke of her desire to help people after leaving the military, using transferrable communication skills and bringing personal resilience to her role in the ambulance service.
Peter provided guidance about the skills needed to succeed in the service, including empathy and understanding other people’s backgrounds and situations, improving communication with patients, and providing a high level of care in patients’ times of need.
Other colleagues from the Leicestershire A&E Division and Education teams also feature in the videos, creating a rich picture of a day in the life of the various roles available across NHS ambulance trusts.
Andy Kirk, Assistant Director of Education and Organisational Development, who coordinated the project from the EMAS side, said “I’m really proud and grateful to all the colleagues who came forward to help make this project a reality. Emma and Peter represented themselves and EMAS to an extremely high standard.
“Over 2 million young people have access to Unifrog, and I have no doubt that EMAS’ input to these videos will create many aspiring ambulance staff in the near future.”
Kirsty Lowery-Richardson, Head of Education at the Royal College of Paramedics, said “We are hugely grateful to colleagues at EMAS and especially Emma and Peter for their brilliant contribution in bringing this work to life. We grasped the opportunity to work with Unifrog to promote the paramedic profession but could not do so without a practice partner. We are confident that these resources will help young people to better understand the contemporary paramedic role.”
