About Us

Jay joined Wellington Free Ambulance as a volunteer Event Medic in 2015, all during his first year of the Bachelor of Health Science (Paramedicine) programme at Whitireia.

He says it helped him gain worthwhile experience working with other event medics and frontline ambulance staff across a range of events.

“This built my own experience and exposure to the different types of work we do. My time as an event medic has been really useful for giving me a foundation to build on,” Jay says.

Jay explains that his lecturers and the paramedics that he’s worked with over the years have been fantastic and constantly encourage him to work towards being the best clinician he can be.

“Being able to witness Wellington Free’s commitment to offering a free service to the community, I quickly realised that this was an organisation I wanted to be part of,” Jay explains.

Fast forward to when Jay was given the opportunity to join the Wellington Free team through the graduate programme.

“I was ecstatic. It was really rewarding to look back at what had been a few years of really hard work at times and see that it had paid off. But it only got better. I heard from others I had studied and interviewed with that they had made it through as well.

“Being able to apply what I studied and making a difference to our patients every day is hugely satisfying,” he says.

He says the graduate programme has been great.

“It’s hard to believe how much I’ve learnt and how much more there is to learn. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked with Amanda and Matt for the first six months, and now with Mal for the next six.

“Although everyone has a slightly different way of working, no matter who your crew partner is you’ll see someone who will put everything aside to offer their patient the best care and compassion they can; whether it be a 90 year old who has fell out of bed at 3am or a child who has become critically unwell at school.

“Everyone does absolutely everything they can for the best possible outcome.”

Jay has recently switched from Red to Brown shift and says people that he gets to work with make it what it is.

“There’s always support available from your mentors and colleagues and I’m constantly learning from them. Even when we’re flat out with workload and it’s been non-stop for the whole shift, we also still manage to have a laugh.”