Ann's Journey - Senior Emergency Medical Technician

Ann Casey is a senior medical technician who has been with the Trust for 19 years.

I joined the Trust in 2005 when it was Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire ambulance service and started off in the patient transport service as an ambulance care assistant. This involved picking up patients from the area and taking them to the specialist cancer treatment hospitals in London for radiotherapy and chemotherapy sessions. I really enjoyed my time as part of the patient transport service, and it was a great stepping stone into frontline – it gave me confidence in how to deal with very poorly patients.

Within four months of joining, I trained to become a high dependency care assistant and then in 2012 I moved to the frontline and became an emergency care assistant (ECA). I did this role for five years and then decided to progress onto an emergency medical technician (EMT) and now I’m a senior emergency medical technician. The process of going from an ECA to an EMT involved an entry exam, followed by a 21-week course which was one day per week. Following this, I had written exams to pass and then one year to complete my portfolio which enabled me to become an EMT.

I enjoy helping patients and hopefully making a difference to them and their families. The variety that being a frontline member of staff brings means that every single shift is different and with that brings different challenges.

I did face some challenges along the way in my career journey, I was 40 years old when I moved to the frontline and found that it took me slightly longer to learn things, but I remember thinking to myself ‘if I don’t do it now, I never will!’.

A job with the ambulance service can be a career for life if you want it to be. There’s no other job like it and I feel very privileged and honoured to be able to share the best and sometimes worst days that a patient and their families can face and try and make a difference. I’m proud to have come from Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and work my way through the ranks and still be here.