![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/Zonta-Strap.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SHE was the first female ambulance officer from regional Victoria, is a recipient of the Ambulance Service Medal, held roles across paramedicine, and is a thirty-two-year veteran of Ambulance Victoria.<\/p>\n
Now, in 2020, Mel Buckingham ASM is an honouree on Zonta Ballarat\u2019s Great Women list.<\/p>\n
For all intents and purposes Mel Buckingham is a trailblazer, not that she sees it that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo tell the truth I didn\u2019t really enter into that cultural change stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just so focused on being a good clinician.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to forget it was the sort of token girl. I never, ever, thought that way at all. I was reminded of it from time to time, more by patients who weren\u2019t used to seeing a female in an ambulance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t important to me. What was important was being really good at my clinical role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time as a State Enrolled Nurse at Fairfield Infections Diseases Hospital and then as a Registered Nurse in Ballarat where she completed her Div 1 training is where that Ms Buckingham worked out the pre-hospital setting was for her.<\/p>\n
It was the variety and complexity of patients in the emergency department and surgical setting that helped refine that desire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough my nursing career I realised what I preferred to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI think I preferred to look after patients on more of a short-term basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d see the ambulances officers coming into the emergency department and that\u2019s when I really knew what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked that emergency department stuff, that rotation of people and the not really knowing what\u2019s going to land at your doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Realising her dream wasn\u2019t easy. Until the year she entered training at the Ambulance Officers Training College in Albert Park, there had never been a female ambulance officer in Victoria.<\/p>\n
That year, 1987, four women began training across three intakes to enter the male dominated Victorian ambulance service.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could never get a job as a paramedic when I started,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took some time for the government to agree to have women work in male dominated roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a lot of groundwork to see if I could get them to recognise me when the opportunity for women came along.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they were thinking women in this job aren\u2019t going to be able to do what we do. It was quite physical. We have technology to support us these days, but we defiantly never had it back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across more than three decades with what\u2019s now known as Ambulance Victoria, Ms Buckingham has held many and varied jobs.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been on the front line, a Senior Team Manager that helped establish and lead the Sebastopol ambulance station, as well as a clinical instructor where she oversaw new recruits who has recently graduated from university.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also held several positions on governance and advisory committees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey needed female representation on a lot of groups that men were on,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a driver trainer, I was on a medical standards committee, a lot of things where they needed female representation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was given quote a lot of opportunities to be on committees where I was the only girl, but I still didn\u2019t take any notice of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her journey through her chosen profession has led Ms Buckingham to her current position with Ambulance Victoria as a community engagement liaison coordinator for the Grampians region.<\/p>\n
In that role she\u2019s still all about saving lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmbulance Victoria wants to improve the cardiac arrest survival statistics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working on heart safe communities at the moment and in Grampians we have three that have been targeted to improve their ability to respond to their own emergencies in relation to cardiac arrests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can hopefully improve our cardiac arrest statistics in towns that are not quite as well supported with paramedic resourcing. In my area we\u2019re working in Murtoa, Smythesdale and Clunes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SHE was the first female ambulance officer from regional Victoria, is a recipient of the Ambulance Service Medal, held roles across paramedicine, and is a thirty-two-year veteran of Ambulance Victoria. Now, in 2020, Mel Buckingham ASM is an honouree on Zonta Ballarat\u2019s Great Women list. For all intents and purposes Mel Buckingham is a […]<\/p>\n