Let’s visit Dawson City and meet someone who is ready to help at a moment’s notice.
Devon is a primary care paramedic.
He is part of a small team which responds to emergencies and calls of all kinds. Recently Devon’s career has progressed as he’s been promoted to having more of a supervisor and teaching role.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role?
My name is Devon. I'm a primary care paramedic with Yukon Emergency Medical Services. I am full-time here in Dawson. I've worked in Dawson for five and a half years.
I do my best to get down to Whitehorse to do a couple extra shifts every now and then just for more experience, but I am primarily here all year.
How did this begin for you? When in life did you think you could become a paramedic?
My mom was a psychiatric nurse for 30-plus years. My uncle was a physician assistant with the military. So they kind of got me really interested in medicine.
I joined St. John Ambulance as a first responder and just fell in love with first response and, pre-hospital medicine in general.
What's rewarding about being a paramedic is helping people. That's a big part of it. That's why I got into it. Outside of just being interested in science and medicine.
Here in Dawson you respond to many different types of calls. Can you tell us about that?
Yeah it’s certainly a wide variety. There are a lot of cardiac calls, or respiratory stuff especially when there are fires in the summertime.
For Dawson specifically, this location is a very big tourist location and it’s known globally. So you meet people from around the world.
How far do you travel for calls?
Dawson has got a pretty wide coverage area. We've met Eagle Plains halfway before, and we go all the way up to the Alaska border. We sometimes travel many kilometers out toward remote mine sites.
We'll do helicopter response if it's for too far for the truck, but otherwise we’ll drive out even a couple hours if we have to.
What makes for a good day at work?
I think a good day is when you feel like a call goes really well and really smoothly. Everyone's on the same page, the treatment goes well, the patient’s cooperative. And you just get them where they need to be safely.
Sometimes the patients give us a “thank you” at the end.
You know, seeing or hearing it come from the person “thank you for helping me” that really helps. That’s a big part of it.
Specifically in Dawson, you get to know your patients quite a bit.
It's a very small town. You see people more often than you would in Whitehorse or in a bigger city center. So you really get to build that rapport and have a bit of a personal connection with them as well.
Is it different working in Dawson City than a major centre?
It's got its own challenges. I feel like our scope of practice is a little broader than other places. We have a lot more autonomy. It feels like they trust their responders to know their job, to do their job, and to do it well.
Here we have two full-time primary care paramedics. We don’t have advanced life support backup. That means we really have to rely on our skills and our knowledge and what we're capable of doing to get the job done.
You have to trust your trust our partner and everyone else in the service.
We do a lot of medevac calls. This location has a small hospital. So we do send a lot of people out either to Whitehorse or to Vancouver depending on what their challenges are.
We work closely with firefighters and police as well. We rely on them a lot for our calls.
What are the opportunities like here in the Yukon?
I'd say specifically in the Yukon, there's a lot of chances and opportunities that you might not get elsewhere.
When I first started here, I was just regular boots-on-the-ground responder. Through the years, I've had the chance to move up to a supervisor role and an education and training role as well, which is really fun.
It's nice to teach and pass on that knowledge that you have and see other people grow and their skills and develop their craft.
What advice might you have for someone considering this line of work?
Well, it's a very rewarding job, for sure. It's a great way to meet the people of the community and integrate into the community and the Yukon lifestyle.
If you're into nature and outdoor activities that's very good there.
It's challenging job. It's going to make you think. It's going to keep you in shape for the most part. There's just a lot to give back to the community that you serve!