Do you ever get those moments when you suddenly realise that a large chunk in your life has passed by? The Ambulance Service best celebrates this when you are presented with a medal for twenty, or even twenty five years, like I did before I joined Birmingham & Solihull Training Hub.
Some might say what’s the point it’s just a piece of metal that you won’t wear, but that’s not the point, to me it was the old chapter in my life coming to an end and the excitement of placing the bookmark, thinking of what will come next when I turn the page.
So where did the last year go at Training Hub, good question it has been a blur, but I have learned so much and met so many fantastic people on the way. Never in a million years did I think that I would be sitting on a national panel for Paramedics, being asked my advice as to which direction HEE RoadMap is going, or leading and delivering CPD to Paramedics, or even writing this blog which you are reading. I would of laughed at the thought of a man my age starting a journey to achieving his masters, but here I am doing that exact thing.
To say it’s been a rollercoaster ride is a very true analogy of my journey for the last year as Paramedic Facilitator. I constantly have been a sponge, absorbing the information as it comes at you, sometimes at a ferocious rate, retaining this for when you need it next.
The learning curve of Paramedic Facilitator is almost vertical and to add another challenge, because I did not need one more, was Covid! A time when you need to be in an office environment asking those silly questions, getting ideas of the old dogs in the Hub, (I will suffer for that one), but no, instead I had a new leviathan to slay, and his name was Teams! Not to say at 48 years old I don’t know how to work a computer, but the fact that I couldn’t lean over and ask the silly question anymore, but more so had to book a Teams meeting in a calendar, and then ask the silly question potentially in front of other colleagues! This posed its own challenges too!
The one comment made to me when I first started in Training Hub was from a Paramedic that had been employed by a surgery before HEE RoadMap had been developed. She said, “I’m so glad you are doing this role,” I asked “why” and the answer was “I now have someone to talk to about the ups and downs of being a Paramedic in Primary care and I’m not on my own anymore”.
In one small conversation, I had a light bulb moment noting that Paramedics in Primary Care did not have the support that we had in the local Ambulance Service, and peer support, guidance and advice are very important to us all.
This cemented my role even further within Training Hub acknowledging that I have made a difference and that I am proud to be part of a brilliant team, and I have enjoyed the last year in post.
Jason Jeffries-Lloyd
Paramedic Facilitator
