Graduate paramedic challenges age stereotypes with career change

Mr Muller's moment of clarity struck while driving the ambulance into Launceston at three o'clock on a foggy September morning as a paramedic was looking after a patient.

" I looked up in the rearview mirror, which is angled so that you can see the paramedic ... and I caught myself with a huge smile on my face," Mr Muller said.

"I thought god I like this work, it's a really good job."

A couple weeks later while working out of George Town, he said he told a different paramedic he wished his younger-self could've taken up the career.

"And he said, well why don't you now? And I said, because I'm 61. And he said, and your point is and I went you know what, you're right," Mr Muller said.

That happened in 2020, and nearly three years later the now 64-year-old was part of the eight northern graduate paramedics to join Ambulance Tasmania.

Mr Muller had moved to Deloraine with his wife from South-East Queensland in 2018 after selling his family car dealerships.

He said they had been drawn to the state's wildlife, particularly the Tasmanian devils at Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary.

Mr Muller quickly joined the Tasmanian Fire Service and State Emergency Service as a volunteer and it was during one call out he saw first-hand what paramedics do.

"Just looking at the way that the ambos did the job, I thought 'oh, that's a pretty good sort of thing'," he said.

He was accepted and inducted as a volunteer ambulance officer in early March, the week before the world shut down due to COVID-19.

Without the ability to travel for work in consulting, Mr Muller said he treated volunteering like a full-time job.

The approach meant he covered shifts beyond Deloraine, and across Northern Tasmania.

"What it did was it gave me exposure to almost all of the paramedics in the North, so I got to work with some amazing people," he said.

Time spent on the road with paramedics was full of "amazing interactions", Mr Muller says.

"The humanity that the paramedics bring to their jobs; you walk in and there's someone in distress and you can just see the shoulders drop and the tension come out of their bodies when the paramedics walk in," he said.

He said he really liked the patient-centred care and collaborative approach paramedics brought to the job every day.

Paramedics being adaptable to difference scenarios faced daily was another aspect Mr Muller noticed.

"These guys have just got the ability to read the room and read the mood, and you'll hear the tone of voice change depending on where the patient's at," he said.

"Some patients want to have a bit of a joke, so the paramedic will be a bit jolly. Others, they're nervous, so the paramedics will be calming."

Unlike what he noticed while working as an organisational consult, Mr Muller said every paramedic loved their job.

"There may be aspects of the job they're not particularly in love with, but everybody loves the job," he said.

"There's real focus and dedication to the patient."

He said sometimes that dedications could be as simple as a cup of tea and helping to book a medical appointment.

No trouble keeping up

The high-pressure and demand of being a paramedic wasn't a deterrent for Mr Muller.

"I never had retirement as an option for me," he said.

"I had to work mentally, and I guess emotionally hard running businesses, and that sort of thing. But I haven't had a lot of issues that a lot of men my age have with their knees gone or back's out."

Another bonus of attending university was being around "substantially younger" people.

"It gives you a whole new aspect on life," Mr Muller said.

"To be able to spend time with young people, and be around them and embraced by them it's just a privilege.

"The conversations aren't about how much I've got in my superfund, the conversations are about well, I'm packing up and going to England for three years as a paramedic.

"They're very different conversations."

He said volunteering through to university had been a "life changing" experience.

Having graduated in April, Mr Muller joined the Ambulance Tasmania graduate program and will do six weeks of training and inductions.

He will then be stationed in Launceston working with supervision before further assessment next June to be fully qualified.

Mr Muller also praised the buddy program, which he is part of as a graduate.

Overall, he said paramedics had no egos and were eager to teach and help.

"It's the people you work with, the people you work for, it's just a delight to work with paramedics and to work with other people," he said.

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