St John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland

Southern Command
How to join St John Ambulance? Print E-mail

We are always looking for bright and enthusiastic people to volunteer with St John Ambulance, Cork City. Our vision is that first aid should be readily available to everyone, no matter where they are or what they are doing at the onset of illness.

Our unpaid volunteers come from all walks of life. We have paramedics, doctors and nurses but we also have students, electricians, and engineers. St. John Ambulance, Cork City, is open to anyone who shares our ideals and is willing to make a commitment to give up some of their free time.

As a uniformed volunteer, you will get to attend many public events including festivals, concerts, community and sporting events. We cover GAA, soccer, and rugby as well as many other sports. You will also have the occasional opportunity to travel to Dublin, Belfast and overseas for competitions and large events. Most important of all though is that you will have the opportunity to care for your fellow human beings and play as part of a team devoted to saving lives. While out on duty, your primary responsibility will always be to provide first aid. However, there is no rule to say that you can’t enjoy the events you attend.

The prerequisites for joining are that you enjoy teamwork, are responsible, have a reasonable level of fitness, and that you hold a certificate in First Aid. For those who would like to join, but don’t have a certificate, St. John Ambulance offers a night time first aid course to members of the public (see the link at the end of the page).

The first step toward joining after you have a certificate in first aid is to contact us so we can invite you to attend our training nights. At these weekly meetings, you will see how we train and learn about the services that we provide. After a couple of weeks, if you still are interested in joining, you will be invited to sign on to the Brigade Active List.

After signing up, you will begin to learn more advanced first aid. You will have the opportunity to attend specialised courses including manual handling, oxygen therapy, automatic external defibrillation, and Emergency Medical First Responder. Most of our courses are externally accredited. You will be trained to deal with everything from treating a minor scrape to attempting to bring someone back to life using a defibrillator.

As you begin to become more competent, you will be invited to join the various teams going out on public duty. During your induction into the Brigade, we will endeavour to ensure that you are always placed with experienced members. You will be tutored and mentored in the different treatments we provide, in the equipment we use and in the importance of how we interact with the public, with members of the HSE, and with members of our sister organisations.

Membership in St. John Ambulance is a lifelong learning experience. Techniques in our field of practice change all the time. In Cork City, we always ensure that our members are trained in the most recent first aid techniques. This requires a commitment from members to always keep their skills up to date by retraining, re-evaluation and by attending our training nights.

You will always have access to the latest equipment and vehicles. We operate three state of the art Renault Crusader Ambulances and one Pathfinder 4X4 vehicle. We use the most up to date ambulance equipment available on the market. We are one of the best equipped voluntary units in the country.

While we understand the pressures of daily life, and realise that people are busier than ever, we ask members to attend training nights whenever possible. We also request members make themselves available for public duty and to help us train others in first aid.

Often, people join St. John Ambulance as a stepping stone towards a life long ambition of starting a career as a paramedic, nurse or doctor. Normally, these members stay involved in the organisation even after they get their dream job.

St. John Ambulance, Cork City, is a registered charity. All of our members are unpaid. Opportunities exist for members to get involved in many aspects of running the organisation, whether it is advertising, administration, store management, vehicle maintenance, event controlling, fund raising, communication or maintaining our web presence. Though the emphasis is obviously on providing primary care and training the public in first aid, there is a large logistical operation constantly in progress to support our primary activities.

We believe that, though we are a charity, we have a duty of care to our casualties parallel to that of the statutory ambulance service. This dictates that we use the latest equipment and vehicles, and that our members are trained to an extremely high standard.
 
If you are interested in joining, please contact us by Clicking Here. We guarantee that it will be the first step in an exciting journey.

 

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