Meet Bendigo graduate paramedic Tahnee Stevenson
February 26, 2025in Community News
Tahnee Stevenson grew up playing soccer but, unfortunately, her young sporting career was marred by several injuries.
The setbacks put Tahnee on a path towards paramedicine and, late last year, that dream was realised when she commenced her new role with Ambulance Victoria (AV) as a Graduate Bridging Paramedic (GBP).
“I was a very active kid which led to a lot of injuries, and along with that, as a child I wasn’t always well,” Tahnee said.
Tahnee Stevenson.
“It meant I experienced a fair bit of time in the back of an ambulance.
“It was always a very daunting thing to have an ambulance turn up to take you away and off to hospital, but I always looked up to the paramedics.”
Tahnee said these interactions with paramedics showed her the real impact first responders have on their patients.
“I learned that the experience paramedics give to a patient changes a lot about their thoughts and processes,” Tahnee said.
“That first interaction with a patient really impacts how they feel, how comfortable they are and how likely they are to re-engage with the health system when necessary.
“Being able to provide a good first experience for people was something that I realised would give me a lot of satisfaction and felt very important to me, so I started thinking about a career as a paramedic.”
While completing her paramedicine degree, Tahnee first joined AV as an Ambulance Community Officer (ACO) in Inglewood.
ACOs are First Responders trained to provide advanced first aid and are employed on a casual basis to work on-call in rural and remote communities.
Tahnee is now undertaking AV’s GBP program, which is designed to provide paramedicine graduates with the opportunity to consolidate their theoretical knowledge and skills while initially working in the medium acuity ambulance care setting.
The 16-month program sees GBPs spend six months working and completing learning tasks under direct supervision in the Medium Acuity Transport Service (MATS), before transitioning to an emergency ambulance.
Tahnee (middle row, second from left) with AV’s newest Graduate Bridging Paramedics.
“Coming out of university, the work has been different to what I was expecting because when you’re studying, the focus is often about the worst-case scenario,” Tahnee said.
“But in reality, not every job goes to the emergency department or requires massive interventions – it’s often about providing reassurance, support and education to our patients.
“Being an ACO before my graduate program has definitely made the transition a lot easier, given the fact I was already familiar with a lot of AV’s processes and my scope as an ACO was very similar to what I’m doing now.”
Tahnee is based at AV’s Eaglehawk branch in Bendigo and is set to move to Swan Hill for the second portion of her graduate program from mid-2025.
“It’s really cool to work within a regional community and realise how important and respected our job is,” she said.
“When we’re called out, it’s not just another person, it’s a member of the community, and you might then see them at your local coffee shop a few weeks later and you’re able to have a conversation about how they’re going.”
Looking forward, Tahnee’s sole focus is to continue providing the best experience she can for her patients.
“One of the highlights for me is being able to engage with patients from all walks of life, such as people who live in regional cities or rural towns, or I’ve had patients ranging in age from 20 days to 105 years,” Tahnee said.
“I’ve learned that communication is everything – to me, trying to build rapport with our patients is the most important part of our job because it can really change people’s experience with AV.
“It’s about being able to help all these different people in the community and make them feel safer and more comfortable, and then it might not be the worst day in the world for them.”