an emergency-—has been taught to thousands of doctors, nurses and other
health care professionals around the province and as far away as Nunavut,
Hong Kong and Malaysia. In 2002, Williams left the Academy to become a
visiting professor at Royal Roads University in Victoria. After his departure,
Dave Busse served as Director until 2007.

Working with Tony Williams, Kelly Murphy became Deputy
Director at the Academy after being a Program Coordinator, an instructor
and a student there. “It was great, a technical school trying to bring in the
academic knowledge and at the same time approach the training from a
practical and realism point of view. There is no better training than trying
to make the practical training as real as what the new professional will be
faced with in the street.

“The B.C. Ambulance Service,” he recalls, “was in a transition in
order to start building the foundation to transform the Emergency Medical
Attendant into a professional paramedic.” The first step towards a profes-
sion had the Ambulance Service and the Justice Institute collaborating to
introduce patient care standards, regular paramedic re-certification and
continuing medical education. “Even in the very earliest days of the JI, it
was the vision of a key executive like Tony Williams to go even further to
offer these streetwise professionals the opportunity to achieve a degree in
their respective sectors.”

After working as a paramedic for eight years in the Lower Mainland,
Murphy accepted a two-year secondment as an instructor at Jericho. “As a
member of the JI staff, I quickly learned there was a much bigger picture
than just the role of the street paramedic. I was exposed not only to the
direction and strategies that the government and the Ambulance Service
wanted to take that young profession, but also how it integrated with all
the other emergency services. During that period, there was a lot of sorting
out of the roles of the Ambulance Service, fire departments and the police
departments as first responders, and we developed all of these programs in
the late 1980s.”

He had become Program Coordinator just as the Justice Institute
itself was evolving: “The Institute realized there was a place for the good
fundamental basics and then created things like the certificate programs
for management—programs where you could start stepping out of the
employer paying for everything and create veins that motivated people to
advance their education within their profession. The Paramedic Academy
began to reach out and offer their training to more then just Ambulance
Service staff—to the military, countries overseas and to other Canadian
provinces. But at the same time they didn’t give up the vision that you had
to develop the profession. Behind the scenes, for all of them—including
police, fire and corrections—the Institute was the catalyst to assist these
groups work towards creating their own profession.”

“In the forest industry, | went through a lot
of training in first aid and there was a shortage
of part-time paramedics when | moved to Cran-
brook. | worked as an EMA | CErnergency Medical
Assistant) from 1987 to 1992. JI was the agency
responsible for putting on the paramedic courses
there. A friend of mine in the city, Barrie Morri-
son, did a lot af work with the J] over many years,
was often our instructor and is now the Program
Coordinator of Professional Training A fantastic
guy. The JI does some amazing work; | have a lot
of respect for them. The courses could go for a
couple of weeks in the evenings or on a weekend
for ditferent modules—like intravenous mainte-
nance—taught tn the field in the classroom in
Cranbrook. With the level of training, you get an
enormous benefit as a person.

“While being a safety officer through the
week in the mill, | was on call as a paramedic usu-
ally on weekends | was at Station 403. a pretty
busy station with three cars. There are calls work-
ing as a paramedic you never forget, especially
arriving at a home with young children In one
case, you had to resuscitate a toddler who was
choking, not breathing. He was about one year
ald when a slightly older brother basically force-
fed him peanuts. But it had a great outcome. That
kind of training—the discipline—just stays with
you. The Jl is a great model: the level, the exper-
tise, how training is structured and of course it's
improved greatly since | was a paramedic.”