Targeted News Service
QUEENSLAND, Australia — Rebecca Howard almost lost her leg due to injuries sustained when she crashed into a metal volleyball post at school in Moura.
However, she was impressed at the treatment provided by local ambulance officers and started to consider her career options.
“I was originally keen on being in the police and then I started enjoying biology classes and considered nursing, but I wanted something with the potential for adrenaline and where I’d be facing something different every day,” she says.
Rebecca is now among 78 students in the pioneering cohort for the Bachelor of Paramedic Science based at CQUniversity Rockhampton, which she says is ideally located to serve students from regional Queensland.
She has pledged to seek work opportunities in rural and regional areas after graduation.
This year has already been a tumultuous,as Rebecca’s family home in Theodore was inundated by the floods and many family possessions were lost.
However, the sports-loving student is tackling the future with positive energy and is looking foward to being able to help other people in crisis in years to come.
Paramedic Science senior lecturer Anthony Weber says most of the initial students for the degree come from regional, remote or rural locations across Central Queensland.
“We have an enrolment of 60 Flex students by distance and 18 internal students,” he says.
“We have internal students who are from Central Queensland, which includes Rockhampton and suburbs, Capricorn Coast including Yeppoon and Emu Park and Theodore.
“We then have Flex students from Rockhampton and suburbs, from Gladstone region and from Emerald region. The rest of the students are from Northern and Far Northern Queensland as well as Toowoomba and Bundaberg, with one from NSW and one from WA. Flex students are able to do the hands-on aspects of the program at residential schools.”
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