A group of clinical volunteers began their training at the Rutherford Training Unit in the Hunter this month, in preparation to provide support to the more remote communities in the area.
Helping facilitate the training, Inspector Joel de’Zuna said the Community First Responder (CFR) induction course has been a long time coming.
“We’ve been planning a CFR induction course in the Hunter for a while but it’s been delayed due to COVID,” he said.
“This is the first opportunity we’ve had in a while to run one and with 16 participants, it’s the biggest class we’ve ever had.”
CFR programs are an important part of building the resilience of small communities and minimising the time between calling for help, and receiving initial care from clinically skilled responders, until paramedics arrive.
“Our CFRs volunteer their time developing their skills to enable us to extend the availability of our services to those in isolated communities,” Joel said. “They are definitely an integral, important part of our service delivery.”
Participants in this latest course were made up of Fire + Rescue NSW members from Denman and Braxton as well as NSW Rural Fire Service attendees from Bulga, Howes Valley and Clarence Town. “The feedback from the educators is that they’ve been the best and most engaged group they’ve ever had,” Joel said.
“I think that comes down to their backgrounds – there’s people with nursing backgrounds, some who are paramedicine students, and even some who were army medics.”
Then there’s Braxton Fire + Rescue NSW member, Adrian Robinson, who has clinical volunteering experience already under his belt.
“I was previously a member of a CFR unit in England 12 years ago and was excited to hear that I could do it with my fire station,” Adrian said.
Kristie Baxter, who is a member of the Howes Valley RFS, said she decided to volunteer because of a personal experience that stuck with her.
“I wanted to help out and be a part of the community, but I also had a local CFR unit attend my property when a friend of mine came off his quad bike at high speed. He ended up being flown from the property to John Hunter Hospital,” Kristie said.
The CFR induction course runs from Friday to Sunday over three weeks. Many thanks to all educators and local facilitators at the Rutherford Training Centre for enabling the large group to complete their training.