A Tasmanian paramedic with over four decades of experience has finally called time on a career that has taken him to all four corners of the state and changed countless lives.
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Nicholas Chapman has been on the front line of the Tasmanian health care system for most of his life.
At the age of 17, Mr Chapman began his career working at the Launceston General Hospital as a nurse.
"In those days it was hospital trained, there was no university training, so it was all hospital trained," he said.
"It doesn't really happen that often that you truly save someone's life, but when we have made that real difference... that's a reward."
- Paramedic Nicholas Chapman
"It was on the job paid from the start and that was three years of training."
On a trip to Hobart to complete an intensive care training course, Mr Chapman had an encounter with several paramedics which piqued his interest in paramedicine, but the young nurse didn't make the switch for several years.
"I went to Hobart and did an intensive care course down there and worked in the ICU down there," he said.
"When I was in Hobart I got to know some people in ambulance and sort of got interested in what they were doing."
After returning to the North, Mr Chapman continued working as an ICU nurse until 1983 when he saw an opening for an ambulance paramedic job. His application was successful and so began his paramedic career. "I worked in Launceston for up until about 10 years ago, so I spent about at least 25 years running around Launceston," he said.
After more than two decades working as a paramedic in the North, Mr Chapman said farewell to his four-wheeled ambulance and traded up to a twin-prop, where he started his last career change as an aeromedical paramedic.
After 10 years of flying with the Royal Flying Doctors Service, Mr Chapman, 65, said now was the time to call it a day.
"I've enjoyed this aspect of it, flying, it's probably extended my career because it just got busier and busier in town [Launceston] and quite frankly, it's hard work," he said.
"This is 10 years, It's been an interesting job and I've loved it, and now it's time for myself and my family."
Over his career, Mr Chapman helped countless people, both as a nurse and paramedic in Launceston, and working with the RFDS, and finds it hard to point to one event any more special than another.
However, one memory has always stayed with him.
"I do recall one person saying that we all see things that no normal person should see... but there is... occasionally, we really do save someone's life and that's a good feeling," he said. "It doesn't really happen that often that you truly save someone's life, but when we have made that real difference... that's a reward."
Looking back on his expansive career, Mr Chapman is modest and pragmatic.
"It's been a wild ride... It's been rewarding," he said.
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