By Michael Joel-Hansen

Parkland dispatchers recognized for their work

Dec 4, 2018 | 4:11 PM

Six dispatchers from Parkland Ambulance in Prince Albert were honoured recently for the work they did during the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy.

The dispatchers, along with their local colleagues at the provincial communications centre and dispatchers from the RCMP Communications Centre in Regina were also recognized.

The recognition was bestowed by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) which presented the recipients with the organization’s team award for their collective efforts coordinating the emergency response. The APCO is a not-for-profit organization which aims to enhance public safety communications in Canada.

One of the Parkland dispatchers who was part of those recognized was Jessie Jabusch.

“(We) were very fortunate that we all won the award, not just us or one of them. It was very nice that we all came together and we all worked together and we were all recognized,” she said.

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Along with Jabusch, Jill Stefanick, Betty Lussier, Danielle Henry, Lyndsie St. Onge and Natasha Cameron from Parkland Ambulance were honoured for their work.

Jabusch explained emergency medical dispatchers from provincial 9-11 services, RCMP and ambulance all coordinated to get emergency personnel to the scene. But in the case of the bus collision, Jabusch said there was much more to respond to.

“Most of those patients went to further hospitals than just the local one, so we also coordinated all those transfers,” she said. “We do not get incidents like that very often. Any patient count over about 10, is very odd for us, so it was a learning experience for us as well.”

The call about the Broncos bus collision came into the call centre between 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the afternoon and the work on moving patients involved in the collision didn’t end until after 3:00 a.m.

Jabusch credits the call centre’s ability to work through the incident to the professionalism of the staff and the fact they are familiar with the out of town staff they deal with.  

“Practice what you know and talk with everybody and just get through it,” she said.

Looking at the recognition, Jabusch told paNOW in some ways she found it difficult to be recognized for her work, while not all of her colleagues were. The Parkland Ambulance call centre has a total staff of 13 dispatchers.

“Any of us working that day this would have turned out the exact same,” she said.

The awards were officially handed out at a ceremony Nov. 7.  

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn