About Us

Az joined the Wellington Free Ambulance team as a Call Taker in August 2023. With a background in mental health, Az says “I’ve always been interested in healthcare and paramedicine. My great grandmother was a nurse and was involved in the ambulances in the Far North back in the day. It feels good to follow in similar footsteps!”

Az believes that dealing with emotions – both their own and the emotions of the person at the end of the phone line – is essential to being a Call Taker. “Thanks to the skills I built in my previous roles, I’ve been able to manage my own emotions and also the caller’s emotions when answering live calls. A big part of my role is getting to them to focus on what’s happening, while reassuring them.”

Az also thanks their previous experience in the mental health field with being able to empathise with callers, likely to be experiencing one of the scariest times of their life. They say it’s “easy to put myself in their shoes and reassure that them that ‘I know this is the scariest thing ever, and although I might not be there with you in person, I’m right here, at the end of the phone’.”

Az was only a few months into their time with Wellington Free when they answered the call that a patient was in cardiac arrest. Yet they believe that thanks to their life experience so far, they’re “in my element when it comes to a crisis” – and their very calming in-person presence backs this up.

Call Takers provide actions in the moment that can have a lasting impact, like in this case. Although Az was providing instructions, it was a (currently anonymous) bystander that performed CPR, demonstrating how so many people play an important part in an emergency response.

When Az heard that the patient was resuscitated and, after further treatment at the hospital, was discharged, they thought it was “really cool to hear, especially as it happened so early into my call taking career”.

Please join us in congratulating Az for their life-saving actions.