Celebrating the women of Ambulance Victoria

March 8, 2024 | in News

This International Women’s Day, Ambulance Victoria (AV) is celebrating the thousands of talented, innovative, and pioneering women who contribute to our organisation and help deliver the best possible care to Victorians every day.

International Women’s Day is recognised annually on 8 March and celebrates far-reaching achievements of women and calls for a continued progress towards gender equality.

This year, the theme is Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.

Excitingly, six outstanding AV women were honoured this year as part of the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA) Women in Ambulance Awards.

The awards highlight successful and hardworking women in ambulance services across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and look to empower and inspire future generation to step into ambulance careers and progress into leadership roles and management levels.

Our 2024 recipients are ALS Paramedics Jo Algie, Belinda Delardes, Rebecca Veitch, ACO Deb Bright, MICA Paramedic Carina Gibson and Research Governance Manager Emily Nehme.

AV Chief Executive Jane Miller congratulated the six recipients on their achievement and reiterated the importance of International Women’s Day in recognising the positive impact women have across the organisation and our communities.

“At AV, we recognise International Women’s Day by raising awareness and celebrating workplace equality and inclusion,” she said.

“We have made enormous progress to increase participation by women – it was only 1987 when we introduced Victoria’s first female paramedics.

“Women now make up more than 50 per cent of AV’s team working in roles across paramedicine and corporate areas.

“We continue to strive to be a safe, fair and inclusive workplace effectively engaging with people from all backgrounds, in line with our Gender Equality Action Plan 2022-2025.”

AV recognises women, including trans women and those who are nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and any others who identify as a woman in a way that is significant to them.

To learn more about other leading women at AV, see their profiles below.

Bronwyn Lambert – Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) Paramedic – Mildura

The only female Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedic in the upper north-west of Victoria says she hopes to inspire more women to take up the career.

Mildura-based Bronwyn Lambert began her paramedic career in the South Australian Ambulance Service in 2004, before joining Ambulance Victoria (AV) at the Irymple branch in 2007.

“The thing I love the most hasn’t changed and that’s patient care and saving lives,” she said.

Jenn Hume – Ambulance Community Officer (ACO) First Responder – Neerim South

As an Ambulance Community Officer (ACO), Jenn Hume is familiar with helping to save the lives of others as a First Responder with Ambulance Victoria (AV).

But Jenn said it was a stage three ovarian cancer diagnosis a few years ago and the reality that her own life needed saving that helped shape the woman she is today.

“I encourage other women to live boldly – say what you want to say, do what you want to do,” she said.

“I feel very privileged to live like this and have a job that gives me a lot of satisfaction and enables me to help other people and to give back.”

Elli Dean, Paramedic (OCELC) and Dr Jessica Dean, Retrieval Registrar Adult Retrieval Victoria – South West

After eight years at Ambulance Victoria (AV), paramedic Elli Dean never expected her older sister, an intensive care specialist, to follow in her footsteps.

Dr Jessica Dean joined AV as a retrieval registrar with AV’s Adult Retrieval Victoria (ARV).

“I thought retrieval medicine looked really interesting, going out to patients in planes and choppers is completely different to what I’ve experienced in my career so far,” Dr Dean said.

Elli said International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to have a conversation about how women can overcome workplace challenges.