Page 5 - 2019-10-Rotary-on-the-Move-Newsletter-Zone-8

‘MENTORING AMBULANCE TEAMS’
Article by Tony Thomas, Rotary Central Melbourne

Rotary's mentoring programs in Victoria have been successfully extended to Ambulance Victoria’s
management and field medics. The modified program, based partly on the 13 years of police mentoring,
involves all five Victorian districts and is coordinated by Rotary Central Melbourne (RCM).
After an initial pilot year, the Ambulance program was expanded to 17 staff and 15 mentors in 2018-19.

The current staff range from paramedics to senior team managers aged from 20s to 50s, they’re in both metropolitan
and regional locations.

Dorothy Gilmour, of Melbourne Rotary, mentored a paramedic in the pilot program who was based in a northern
Victorian rural town. She met her literally half-way at the Tooborac pub on Sunday afternoons. Each session lasted
3-4 hours by the fireplace. – and no alcohol was ever consumed.

Dorothy, whose background is in trauma, loss and grief counselling, also spent a day with a paramedic team in the
field. “I was hugely impressed by their skills, energy and comradeship and their complete non-judgemental attitude
to their patients. Everyone in the country town knew them. When they came into a café for coffee, the owner always
offered a paper cup with a lid, because they might rush off at any moment,” she says.

Clubs involved include Central Melbourne,
Melbourne, Warrnambool, Malvern, Geelong
East, E-Club of LaTrobe, Southern Mitchell,
Canterbury, Mordialloc, Box Hill Central, Kew,
Greenvale, Forrest Hill, and Fitzroy.

Rotarian Alan Seale has led the Rotary effort. He
says, “We’ve now learnt a lot about the best
mentoring styles for ambulance team members
compared with police. Their interaction with the
community is obviously different. Because country
Rotary clubs tend to be small and with older
members, we don’t have a big pool of mentors to
draw on in the regions.
“Ambulance Victoria has also integrated a lot of
Rotary mentors Alan Seale and Yvonne Flynn are
congratulated by PDG (9800) Bronwyn Stephens and internal management and skills development with
Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker the program, whereas the police mentoring is more
stand-alone.”

Ambulance Victoria people and Rotary mentors in the 2018 and 2019 programs
get together to celebrate the changeover.
Both programs aim to create more resilient leaders. Alan mentions advocacy skills like gaining networks of support
for proposals and decisions. Staff can gain confidence in interacting with both senior and junior colleagues. The
mentors share their own success techniques and suggest why other methods may not win through. “Mentors are
also a safe haven where ambulance people can talk about sensitive personal, cultural and office matters,” he says.

Brett Jones from Rotary Central Melbourne mentored two staff last year. He also enjoys the theory side of mentoring
as he holds a Master’s degree in Organisational Development: “We’d discuss a problem and talk through to a plan.
They’d give it a go and we’d review it next meeting. The ambulance people are smart, well trained and very careful
and disciplined about their responsibilities.”

Rotary on the Move October 2019 Page 5