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This International Women’s Day we’ve caught up with Rachel Smith, Gemma Richmond and Georgina Godfrey, three YAA Paramedics to see what life is like working as a female Paramedic through the pandemic.

Rachel, Georgina and Gemma form part of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Critical Care Team, comprising 11 Consultants in Emergency Medicine and 20 Paramedics who work as crew on our helicopters delivering the life-saving service to 5 million people across 4 million acres of Yorkshire. The Paramedics are seconded by our partner Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, on a two-year basis.

What has it been like working through the pandemic?

Rachel: My job role changed vastly working through the pandemic. We had to think a lot more about personal protective equipment (PPE) and it always has to be at the forefront of our minds to protect ourselves and our patients. We also had to consider protecting our families, as we go home every night to our loved ones and we don’t want to run the risk of passing COVID on to them.

Georgina: I started working for YAA around August time as we were just coming out of lockdown and everything was looking positive. I had a new job and we had just completed four weeks of training and then another lockdown was announced. A lot of things stayed the same, which I’m quite grateful for because it was a sense of normality. But it was a worrying time as none of us knew when lockdown would end and the vaccines wasn’t quite ready at that point. There’s more of a light at the end of the tunnel now.

Gemma:  You have all the complications that come with a new job such as training and how you’re going to fit in with your new role and then on top of all that, you have extra work involved ensuring that you’re safe and that the patient is safe and all of the relatives are safe. There’s a lot to remember and a lot to take on, it’s a constant extra pressure. It makes decision making more difficult and also patient relations harder as there’s a barrier in the way in form of PPE. You never really consider how much facial expressions matter until your face is covered and the patients can’t see you. In the aircraft, you would smile at them to let them know everything would be OK because it’s noisy, but we have lost that connection at the moment.

What was has it been like wearing PPE?

Georgina: There’s a lot of PPE to wear, especially when it is hot outside, it can be difficult to wear. You sweat quite a lot in it and we had a particularly hot summer. If you were in it for too long, it could make you feel a bit ill. Then when we went into winter, we had trouble wearing the goggles steaming up. We’ve had a few hiccups, but on the whole, it has become part of the new normal. Because we have worn it for so long, your body gets used to it. We have to remind ourselves that it’s there to protect us and the patients.

Gemma: It’s very, very hot. Even in winter, it’s hot as you’re wrapped up, especially at Topcliffe as a lot of the jobs are outside. I’m often wearing a base layer, YAA t-shirt, gilet and jacket and then my flight suit on top of that and the PPE such as an apron or grown. You end up cooking!

Rachel: It’s not very pleasant as it can be very warm, but it’s vital to our role at the moment to protect ourselves, our patients and our loved ones.

How does it feel like to be working on the frontline?

Georgina: In the very first lockdown I was on the road in the ambulance and people would stop and applaud us. People would pull over and thank us for all the fantastic work we have been doing and for putting our lives on the line. It becomes quite emotional. You go to work and you don’t expect gratitude and thanks. It was heart-warming to see all community coming together. I’m so proud to be working on the frontline.

Gemma: I think people are appreciative of people who have continued to work through the pandemic because a lot of the country was furloughed or worked from home. We never saw that side of the pandemic because it was never an option for us. Patients would still be poorly and the medical world wasn’t going to stop. I was proud to be out there and doing my role even though I was putting myself at risk.

Rachel: You know that you’re going to work and being potentially affected by COVID, but you also know there are people out there that will need you. I think people appreciate more what we put ourselves through to look after others. I’m proud of my colleagues, especially those out on the road exposed to COVID more frequently.

How does it feel to be a female Paramedic in 2021? Has the industry changed since you started?

Georgina: I started working for the ambulance service in 2010 and I’ve seen a change where more women are working in the ambulance service, especially in more management roles. I think that Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Yorkshire Ambulance Service do a fantastic job of empowering females, giving us lots of opportunities and helping put things forward – which is great!

Rachel: There are a lot more women in the service since I started working as a Paramedic 14 years ago, there weren’t that many women working for the ambulance service back then. I think the interpretation of what a Paramedic is has changed. It’s not so much about the physical aspects of the role such as dealing with a road traffic collision anymore, the caring element is a lot more prevalent.

Gemma. I think in the past it was probably looked at as a male-orientated role or thought of. I’ve been in the service for 19 years now and it’s now a lot more 50:50, especially on the road. I think the makeup of staff is nicely balanced, I think appeals to more females now because they bring something different especially if you get a male and female crew in the aircraft – you tick every box, you can deal with so many different cases.  It’s nicely spread out and good teamwork when you get that mix. I work with Lisa quite often as a double female crew and sometimes it can be a surprise to patients when two female Paramedics turn up. But I’ve never considered it as anything different. I think people still expect to see a man jump out of a helicopter.

Who is your female inspiration?

Georgina: I would say, Jessica Ennis-Hill. I remember watching her at the Olympics and thinking that she is such a physically strong and mentally strong woman and I want to be like that. In recent years she has had children but still stays very true to herself and humble. I’m a Sheffield girl and she was a local girl just like me.

Gemma: It has to be my grandma, who has sadly passed away now but she was a very strong, independent woman. She was 90 when she died and she was very much the person that I would like to turn out like. She liked adventure and loved to travel the world and as she got older, she still went on holiday by herself. She was a super strong woman, who gave the best advice and she was proud of her family. She would have loved to hear about my new role working on the helicopters.

Rachel: My female inspiration is my mother-in-law who we sadly lost to cancer last year. She was an amazing woman who never let her diagnosis influence who she was or dictate how she lived. She fought to the very end and I was very lucky to have her in my life. I hope to show the same strength and determination in my life as she did.

We caught up with Dr Tim Moll, one of our YAA consultants to learn about some of his incredible work outside of the Charity. When he’s not working for us, Tim is not only a Consultant Anaesthetist at Sheffield Northern General Hospital, he also has an exciting and varied career at the side of some of the UK’s fastest racetracks!

Motorsport Doctor

I have always loved fast cars and motorbikes and for the last 20 years, I’ve worked in motor racing as a hobby. My passion for riding powerful sportsbikes may seem a bit strange when as a YAA doctor as I frequently get called to life threatening car and motorcycle incidents. However, a life without motorbikes would be no life at all…besides, we have team members who enjoy climbing and caving – prehaps YAA doctors just tend to be adrenaline junkies!

Formula One

As one of the trackside medical team, I get to watch the race for free from the best seat in the house. The hours are long, but I love every minute of it. With advancements in safety, injuries are thankfully rare. In 20 years, the only medical thing I’ve had to do is give one of my packed lunch Mars Bars to a diabetic spectator who was suffering from low blood sugar. I’m always alert for the chance to meet my racing heroes. One of my best moments was when the great Fernado Alonso crashed his Ferrari into the barrier right in front of me – I still have a piece of the car as a souvenir.

The World Rally Championships

The World Rally Championships is strictly for masochists only. Who in their right mind would get up at 2am to be driven in a 4×4 in the middle of a cold, rainy, dark Welsh forest (with no phone signal), wait four hours for a series of cars to blast by showering you with mud and then do it all again for another three days! It’s certainly not for the pay – I usually make a loss on the working event (to my wife’s disappointment). In practice, it’s great fun and the camaraderie between the doctors and paramedics based at the stages is what makes it so great. After three sleepless nights, I began to wonder why I put myself through this hell. However, on the drive home, I’m already looking forward to next year.

MotoGP

As a doctor at the World Motorcycle Grand Prix, I tend to be based at the medical centre. I like this as I get to meet my motorcycling heroes (albeit they are often not at their best when I get to see them). Meeting the best racers in the world is an indescribable thrill for me! Last year, I had to fly one of my heroes by helicopter to the trauma centre for scans and a check up – he had concussion. The receiving hospital did not realise they were dealing with an international superstar.

His scans were fine and I recommneded that he went back to the circuit for a period of observation for a couple of hours before flying home. He politely declined, explaining that his private jet was parked only half an hour away, he’d rather fly back to Italy and do his observation there as it would be just as quick as returning to the circuit!

Cadwell Park

I am the Chief Medical Officer at the major UK racing circuit, Cadwell Park. I work there as a doctor and I am responsible for making sure the medical services are up to scratch. We mainly hold motorcycle races as the circuit is too narrow and twisty for the bigger cars. The race track is like a ribbon of tarmac running through green fields and woodland. Without two doctors being present – racing is not allowed to start. More stressful than the injuries we deal with is the ‘Sorry Tim, I’m ill and can’t make it tomorrow’ phone call from a race doctor colleague. Luckily, I have a very understanding wife – she used to work there too!

Football Crowd Doctor

My non racing pre-hospital hobby is as one of the crowd doctors for Sheffield United Football Club. I am responsible for the crowds, which can be around 20,000 spectators. Luckily, a team of excellent paramedics assess and filter out most of the illnesses  and injuries, calling me for only the most serious cases, meaning I get to watch most of the match.

The hardest thing in this role is remaining professionally neutral. As a lifelong Sheffield United fan, when we score my instincts are to jump in joy and celebrate. However, this is frowned  up. As is laughing with glee when the opposition misses a penalty or one of their players is sent off. If I do have to see a patient, I get radioed to attend the first aid room. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been assessing the patient and I’ve heard a roar as a goal is scored. You just have to grit your teeth and remember you’re actually working there as a doctor and not attending as a fan.

Today we’ve been viewing first drafts of new videos which we recently had made of our crews in action. The content is to refresh our current suite of videos and for our new sponsored promotional vehicles which are nearly ready to roll. I am again, as always blown away by the skill and commitment of the crew. Their professionalism in the face of so much stress, sometimes horror, and nowadays, also risk, is difficult to grasp for someone like me. Every day our doctors, paramedics and pilots face life changing situations in circumstances sometimes outside of their control, and yet they remain calm and focussed and people end up owing their lives to that courage under pressure.

It’s a far cry from talks, presentations, spreadsheets, gazebos and bucket collections. But as fundraisers, that is what we do and we gape in awe at the bravery of the crew-and sell some more key rings. Fundraisers know that their job is to get their heads down and follow the money. We know that we are not at the sharp end. We are fully aware that we are not for the TV screens or the limelight. We work in small groups, engaging with our generous donors with their own individual stories, with volunteers who give their time so freely and represent us so passionately. We feel proud to be part of the fabulous team that is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and humbled by the small significance of our role, as a small facilitating cog in the big wheel which does such important life-saving work.

Then the day came when one of our paramedics said to me, when we were having such a conversation about what valuable and life extending work they do, that the crew would not be able to do anything if it were not for the fundraising team. I laughed a bit, awkwardly at the joke, but it stopped me in my tracks and did occur to me that actually it’s the partnership which is the key. The donors make it possible for the air ambulance to operate, the fundraisers and volunteers provide the conduit to this small quiet miracle and it is this hand to hand chain of events which makes such crucial work possible. It helped me to foster a kind of pride of my own team, at the strength of the colleagues we have in the role of income generation, and it makes the early starts, the long days, the chilblains and the brainstorming zoom meetings all worth it to make these two polar opposites of the service attract and come together with such miraculous results.

Happy 60th Birthday to our pilot Steve. Waudby. As Steve turns 60 this week unfortunately he is no longer able to fly our helicopters due to UK flying legislation.

Steve’s passion for flying started at a mere age of 13, when he joined the Air Training Corps (air cadets).  He went solo in a glider at age 15, became a gliding instructor at age 16, and at age 20 won a Royal Air Force flying scholarship, where he obtained his Private Pilot’s license.

He joined the RAF in 1983 and worked his way up to Squadron Leader, qualifying as a flying instructor and later becoming the senior helicopter instructional standards examiner.  Throughout his 22 years of service, he has flown all over the world including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.

Steve has flown periodically for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance over the last eight years in a freelance capacity, returning full time in August 2018.

According to military tradition, pilots are not supposed to know the exact date of their last flight. Therefore Chief Pilot Owen McTeggart organised a special one off call so that the crew could celebrate Steve’s momentous occasion in style.

Owen McTeggart, YAA Chief Pilot said: “In the military, we used to actively avoid letting a pilot have ‘a last flight’, or at least letting them know it was the last flight, until they had landed.”

On Friday afternoon the plan was to dispatch Steve and the crew to an unknown mission and then promptly ‘stand them down’ and turn the helicopter back to base to be greeted by a few members of the Senior Management Team including the charity’s chairman Peter Sunderland, for a ‘socially distance’ thank you for his many years of duty

However! No plan is fool proof. And almost exactly at the same time we planned to send Steve away on his fictional task, a real task came into the Airdesk, with Steve and the rest of Helimed 98 dashing off to ‘save a life’. As with all things in HEMS, no one knows how long the task will take and Peter with the rest of the senior management team had to leave due to other commitment and arranged to meet up with Steve at a later date. Steve still got his traditional soaking with sparkling wine (non-alcoholic of course) as Paramedic Kit von Mickwitz dashed across to the supermarket while the rest of the crew prepared the aircraft for the return to base.

Steve also had something else to celebrate upon returning to base. On this flight, Steve achieved his 8,760 hours of flying, which equates to a year in the air, a very big milestone for pilots.

Thankfully we’re not saying goodbye to Steve, we are happy to report that he will continue working for the YAA as our Director of Aviation.

Thank you for your many hours of duty Steve and here’s to many more hours supporting our wonderful charity on the ground!