Kelly-Anne's Journey - EOC Training and Education Manager

Kelly-Anne Applegate is an EOC training and education manager who has been with the Trust for 10 years.

I joined the Trust after I finished university in 20052015. I was intending to take some time doing a fulfilling role, before returning to university to complete my masters. I joined as a call handler, and soon found that I loved working for the ambulance service and knew I wanted to pursue a career with EEAST.

I worked as a call handler in one of our emergency operations centres (EOCs) for a couple of years, before moving to the EOC quality assurance and education team as a quality assurer where I listened to calls and provided feedback to the call handlers against the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED) performance standards, which outlines the standard all control room staff should work to.

From there, I applied for the EOC lead educator position where I was the team leader for the EOC training team. I worked in this role throughout the pandemic until partway through, a secondment for the EOC training and education manager became available. I was successfully recruited into the secondment, and then was ultimately successful when the job was made substantive, and I have been in this role since.

I enjoy managing my regional team and travelling to the three different EOC sites. I particularly enjoy providing education based on patterns identified by the quality assurance team or brought to light via serious incidents and being able to rectify those patterns with training. I also enjoy welcoming new students into the roles of call handlers and dispatchers and seeing them progress through their own careers.

Moving into a leadership position early on in my career, and being one of the youngest members of the team whilst doing so, was a challenge but any role comes with both equal parts challenging and rewarding aspects. Particularly in the roles I have been in, you can see the impact your work has directly for patients in the region and the help you bring to people.

At EEAST, we always have there is always a supportive network of colleagues around to support you and everyone shares the one common goal of patient safety and patient care.