Dear friends & colleagues,
As we come to the close of another year, we'd like to thank everyone involved in the activities of CAA for 2021. It's been another interesting one navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, but we're very grateful to have still been able to bring many of our events to you all, just in a virtual setting.
For some highlights from this year read below, from our first Virtual Expo to our largest Restart a Heart Day campaign yet, we were so happy to be able to continue to implement new and exciting projects.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, stay safe over this festive season.
With kindest regards,
Mojca Bizjak-Mikic
General Manager
2021 saw the second year of the Council of Ambulance Authorities inaugural Women in Ambulance campaign. The campaign is designed to highlight successful and hardworking women in ambulance services across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
This year the CAA Women in Ambulance campaign recognised 60 women who have been awarded the CAA Women in Ambulance honour for their work and career progression and are being championed as role models to the rest of the workforce.
Many services held events where the Honour Recipients were announced and awarded their certificate, lapel pin and invitation to Women in Leadership Forum in 2022.
The CAA Women in Ambulance campaign operates to empower and inspire future generations of women to step into ambulance careers and progress into leadership roles and management levels.
To read all about our 2021 Women in Ambulance recipients click here
Take Five for Hand Hygiene is an annual campaign created by the Council of Ambulance Authorities to highlight the importance of hand hygiene during paramedic's time with patients.
The campaign is designed to highlight 5 key moments when dealing with patients and importantly speaks about good hand hygiene and the over-reliance on wearing gloves, that, when inappropriately used, can assist in spreading contaminants.
On May 5, a good practice hand hygiene video was released which complimented the video released last year that was "Bad Practice".
In this video, the CAA similarly takes you through an ambulance trip from when a crew first arrives in a patient's home to where they are handed over to the hospital emergency department. It shows the variety of people the crew comes in contact with and highlights the 5 critical moments in the journey where staff demonstrate good hand hygiene practices. CAA would like to thank St John NZ for producing the video.
A special extended webinar was also released in May as part of the campaign on the topic of Infection Control Post Pandemic. This webinar featured Peter Collignon, Edward Johnson and Mark Reggers and ran for 3 hours.
For more information on CAA's Take 5 for Hand Hygiene campaign click here
The CAA is committed to supporting the ambulance sector to work towards a more sustainable future. The CAA Sustainability Strategy is the first step in our goal for #sustainableambulance.
The theme of World Environment Day in 2021 was ‘Reimagine, Recreate, and Restore.’ CAA launched the CEO's planting trees initiative in line with World Environment Day’s theme by addressing that whilst we cannot turn back time, we can grow trees and think of new and creative ways to encourage behavior that acts to restore the environment. CAA provided each member service with a native tree to plant as a part of the initiative.
A special CAA Webinar was produced with a sole focus on Sustainable Ambulance. Alexis Percival, Environmental and Sustainability Manager for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust based in Yorkshire, UK, presented the Webinar. Alexis has over 20 years experience in the environmental field.
CAA continues to work on collating best practices from around the globe, vendors and suppliers of sustainable products and solutions, marketing collateral, and ideas on how to start making long-lasting changes for a better environment. CAA shares this information and plays an active role in supporting communities to grow sustainable relationships and work with staff on creating sustainable workplaces.
For more information on CAA's Sustainable Ambulance strategy click here
The Me First campaign, initiated throughout Mental Health Awareness Month (October), enlisted the assistance of Mitch Mullooly our wellness columnist, who features within every issue of our FIRST Magazine. Mitch aimed to share her expertise and tips on mental health and wellbeing through a short video and a handful of helpful tips.
CAA Board Chair and CEO of Ambulance Victoria, Tony Walker also got involved to share with the community how important it is for pre-hospital sector workers to look after their mental health.
For more information on CAA's Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy click here
This statistic was used to create the #9for9 Challenge. The challenge aimed to get people performing 9 CPR compressions on a pillow or stuffed toy in honor of the 9 in 10 people that don't survive and posting a video of it on their social media encouraging others to do the same. From this came a partnership with Build-A-Bear, where we created our limited edition Heartly the Restart a Heart bear. People could purchase a Heartly to undergo their #9for9 challenge. Virtual event videos ran from October 11-16, raising awareness of different aspects relating to Restart a Heart Day such as educating the public on the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest, AED and CPR education and myths and facts about responding to a cardiac arrest. These are just some of the many activities from this year.
Congratulations to our category winners and Star Award winner.
In 2022 we will be bringing back the in-person CAA Congress at the ICC in Sydney.
Tickets on sale February 1st, more information to come.
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About The Council of Ambulance Authorities
The Council of Ambulance Authorities is the peak industry body for Australian, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea ambulance services. CAA represents a unified voice for the pre-hospital sector working to respond to changing community needs by collaborating on issues on metropolitan, regional, national and international significance, and works tirelessly to collaborate on the ambulance and pre-hospital issues of metropolitan, regional, national and international significance.
The CAA was set up in 1962 to provide ambulance service CEOs with a networking opportunity to discuss issues, learnings and achievements current to the pre-hospital industry. Today the board consists of CEOs from each member service.
Member services collective knowledge and expertise provide a sound foundation to explore opportunities for improvement and innovation and to advocate on the sector's behalf in key areas.
To read more about us visit our website.
