Ambulance staff in the North West are benefitting from even more expert clinical support as Advanced Paramedic, Vinny Romano steps up to embark on a new challenge as Consultant Paramedic for Education at North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) making him the first person in the country to take up this role.

The position has been created to sit alongside the education team and provide a vital clinical input into all aspects of training, including newly qualified paramedics and frontline ambulance crews as well as within the trust’s patient transport service and emergency operations centres.

Vinny, 43, from Penrith joined the ambulance service in 2000, qualifying as a paramedic in 2004 before moving on to work in staff training from 2008 until he was promoted to become one of the first advanced paramedics for NWAS in 2010 covering the Lancaster, Morecambe and Sedbergh areas.

During this time, Vinny has gained a MSc in Advanced Practice which, along with his vast experience, gave him more in depth knowledge about paramedic practice and allowed him to also work in a local urgent care centre as an Advanced Practitioner.

Vinny said: “Since joining the ambulance service this has been my dream job, I remember being asked on my first training day how I would like my career to progress and I knew then that I wanted to go into education so I’m extremely proud to have been given the chance to achieve this dream.

“I’m settling in really well to the team already, they are a fantastic passionate group of people and I’m really excited for us to continue to innovate and develop the training for our staff going forward.”

Vinny is now one of eight consultant paramedics across the trust, they are extremely highly trained and use their vast experience and knowledge to provide a broad range of clinical support to colleagues across the trust in specialist pre-hospital care meaning that seriously ill patients can receive the best possible treatment before arriving at hospital.

Assistant Director of Workforce and Organisational Development, Carol Offer, said: “Having seen the value that consultant paramedics have given the trust already, we knew it would be a fantastic opportunity to create a position for one within our education team and Vinny is the perfect person to take on the role.

“Vinny will work closely with the other consultant paramedics across the trust and focus his time developing projects and initiatives to give more in-depth clinical input into the training we are able to provide for our staff and is already making a really positive difference.

“I feel that this post is a real step forward in improving our approach to the development of our professional clinical workforce and he is an absolute asset to the team.”

Vinny will still regularly respond to emergencies and continue leading on the trust’s Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) programme which helps to support colleagues who have attended traumatic incidents.