Nanaimo paramedics capture gold & silver at world skills competition

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(Image Credit: Rallye Rejviz)

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Participants on the gold medal-winning Team Canada-blue team were Andrew McLaren, who splits time between Prince George and Nanaimo, YVR-based paramedic Aaron McLure, and Victoria’s Steve Sulyok and Melissa Sims.

Nanaimo’s Andrea Gibson, David Schwenning, and Ryan Casslemann were on the silver medal-winning Team Canada yellow, alongside Vancouver’s Jake Fletcher.

Nine scenarios are planned by event organizers, with one guaranteed to be a night-time callout.

Participants are not aware of when they’ll be dispatched, just like in real life, meaning naps, meal times or other tasks are routinely interrupted.

“There are many different medical calls, definitely some traumas. The thing about this competition…is usually all the calls that you’re going to are real calls that the head judge of that call wrote, because they were calls they actually did. So, it’s really hard to say ‘no, you can’t do this, you can’t do that,’ because it’s an actual call that they’ve done.”

Mattes said the event is a great way to not only test the skills learned through training and on the job, but also to take away lessons from other paramedics from around the world.

He told NanaimoNewsNOW, B.C. paramedics’ commitment to safety is second to none.

“The safety aspect we take over there, but just seeing how other teams compete, what they do, what tools they use, how they approach situations…it’s very neat to see. There’s a lot of camaraderie, just talking about how we do stuff, how they do stuff…it’s a huge learning experience for all that are involved.”

(Image Credit: Rallye Rejviz)

The scope of the competition is also significantly different.

Mattes said during multi-agency training at Nanaimo Airport, around 100 people would participate in the exercise.

The competition this year had over 1,000 paramedics, police officers, judges, actors, and support staff to make the event happen.

This year marked the 29th year of paramedic participation, while separate categories were also offered for dispatchers, medical students, and police officers.

Competitors came from across Europe, the UK and United States.

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