Howard almost gave up after his first day as a paramedic. That was 51 years ago ...

There was no way Howard Wren was ever going to forget his first job.

Before lunch on day one of being a volunteer paramedic with the local ambulance service in Tumut, he’d attended a horrific fatality.

“It was a head-on collision on a country road, and in those days – it was an older car – so no crumple zones,” he says.

“From memory, I don’t think it even had seatbelts.”

Beyond transporting the driver, an elderly lady, to the nearest hospital, where there was only one doctor and one nurse on staff, there was little Howard or his presiding officer could do.

“It was very confronting, and I thought long and hard over the next few days about whether I would keep going,” he says.

“But I was very fortunate because the person I was working with was someone who actually talked through these sort of jobs with his staff, when it was common practice to just sort of stuff it in your back pocket and move on … He was prepared to make sure I was OK.”

Almost exactly 51 years later, on Friday (28 February), the chief officer of the ACT Ambulance Service (ACTAS) hung up his uniform for the last time.

“I’ve got overseas travel planned in March, and I’ll be off and just spending more time with family,” he says.

In his time, Howard has worked at the Canberra Hospital and taught paramedicine to recruits of ACTAS. He moved to ACTAS full time in 1989. He has held the position of chief of ACTAS since July 2017.

It all began in high school in Tumut when he defied norms by doing several first-aid courses.

“I was just interested in medical matters,” Howard says.

“And at that time, the courses were run by the local ambulance station, so I got to know the volunteers over the years, and when I turned 18, I left school and put my hand up to become a volunteer.”

Compared with the university degree in paramedicine required today, joining an ambulance crew back then involved only three criteria: that you were aged 18 or above, held a driver’s licence, and had a first-aid certificate.

Only the following year, when he became a paid paramedic with NSW Ambulance, did he undertake three weeks of training in Sydney, but even this was cut short due to his previous experience.

“That’s been one of the huge changes over my time,” he says.

“It’s gone from just being a job to what is now a proper profession.”

Howard also says where it might have been rare for an officer to look out for a junior the way his first officer did, “the support processes around people exposed to traumatic events … are way, way better”.

“But the other massive change is just the level of care that can be provided to people now. When I started, it was essentially just advanced first aid – there was very little we could do for people other than a quick trip to hospital – whereas now there are a whole range of treatments available that not only make a huge difference to whether people survive or not, but also the way their pain is managed.”

He says many of these changes can be attributed to the work of unions.

“You can look at other organisations where maybe that hasn’t been the case, but here – and particularly in more recent times – it has been very much a collaborative effort between what we as the management of the ambulance service want … and what the union is prepared to support.”

But the greatest memory he’ll savour into retirement is how he’s been able to participate in the education of “dozens of critical-care nurses and paramedics who have gone on to be outstanding clinicians and teachers”.

“For me, that’s a career highlight.”

During his last week, he imparted some words of encouragement to a group of graduates who have only been working at ACTAS for a few days.

“This is a great job. There are aspects that are very challenging, and on occasions it will be difficult. But overall, it’s a job that allows people a great deal of satisfaction. They have a lot of autonomy, without a boss hanging over their shoulder all the time. And it’s a job that is valued and respected within the community. So, I guess my message is: ‘Seriously think about it as a career’.”