Six women from NSW Ambulance were recognised in the 2023 Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA) Women in Ambulance awards to celebrate International Women’s Day this year.
Congratulations to Lisa Vickers, Maxine Puustinen, Kirsty England, Nicole Micallef, Linda Reichstadter, and Abir Derbas, who were recognised in the CAA Women in Ambulance awards.
The Women in Ambulance awards are designed to recognise and promote the hard work of incredible and inspirational women who work in ambulance services across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The campaign looks to empower and inspire future generations of women to step into ambulance careers and progress into leadership roles and management levels.
Lisa Vickers
Lisa is a well-respected member of the Western Sydney, Nepean and Blue Mountains Sector at NSW Ambulance. Lisa is highly regarded in her role as the sector’s Station Manager Deployments. She is also known for having a keenness to support, assist and develop others. She has also held crucial roles within NSW Ambulance’s Incident Management Teams to ensure sound and reliable planning, which in turn has guaranteed service delivery in challenging situations. She is professional, dependable, and a high performer with an attention to detail and excellence.
Maxine Puustinen
Over the past 32 years, Maxine has worked in every position within a Control Centre at NSW Ambulance. She has also held other executive support roles during that time. The Control Centre environment is both high-pressured and constant, yet despite these challenging circumstances, Maxine provides unwavering support to her staff, ensuring their welfare is a priority during all operations. She led her team at Sydney Control Centre as they responded to unprecedented Triple Zero (000) call volume through the pandemic. One of her notable achievements was being awarded the Ambulance Service Medal in 2020.
Kirsty England
Kirsty is a paramedic educator who has been instrumental in changing student experiences and ensuring best patient practices. Kirsty has single-handedly impacted the quality of health care in which an abundance of individuals practise today. She has guided all levels of staff to improve their clinical performance and care and has led the innovation and facilitation of the new Post Employment Tertiary Pathway. Kirsty was NSW Ambulance’s Employee of the Month in October 2022.
Nicole Micallef
Nicole is an accomplished Intensive Care Paramedic (ICP), Extended Care Paramedic (ECP), and a passionate educator for both the ICP and ECP courses. She has worked as a single responder and been a forward commander at multiple significant incidents throughout her career. She champions her colleagues in every interaction, and empowers the women around her. She is considered by many to be a role model for the kind of paramedic they would like to be.
Linda Reichstadter
Linda is an Aeromedical Operations Officer who specialises in rapid launch trauma coordination, offshore shipping rescue coordination, state emergency operations and incident management teams. With these skills and knowledge, along with her personal traits – she is considered to be a genuinely nice and patient person –have benefited many through her on-the-job training and time as a paramedic educator. She is determined, diligent, respected, loving, giving, and a role model who does not seek recognition.
Abir Derbas
Abir led her team to undertake scaled up recruitment campaigns at short notice, including a 2018 program that welcomed 750 new paramedics and call takers, and the SWIFT program that will provide funding for 2,128 staff members joining the organisation. She implemented the assessment centre process which resulted in an important culture change towards greater efficiency and transparency in recruitment. She is considered to lead change with her head and her heart, and contributes tirelessly to the growth of NSW Ambulance.
