Asif Khan was helpless as his father laid by his side motionless for eight hours before a faulty van claiming to be an ambulance arrived to offer help, a feeling that he knew all too well after losing both his mother and grandfather in similar circumstances. This is just one example of the poor pre-hospital healthcare services offered in Pakistan that Khan plans on fixing, with help from the Australian Paramedical College.
Following a short stint in Australia in 2010, the 38 year-old was forced to return to his hometown in Pakistan to care for his sick father and finally his mother where they all died as a result of poor medical services.
“My Father broke his hip, and then got back sores which got infected because the doctors and nurses did not pay attention at all neither educate us how to take care of him,” Mr Khan said.
After losing these immediate family members Khan moved to Darwin permanently with his wife and daughter where he plans to become qualified as a Paramedic and Nurse to gain knowledge of pre-hospital and hospital care so he can make a change or a difference to people’s lives in Pakistan.
“I have seen a lot of loss in my country and those people could have been saved if there was proper training,” Mr Khan said.
“In Pakistan people have degrees, but they lack knowledge or common sense. That’s why I’m doing this course, so I can go back and start an ambulance service, which we don’t have.”
With a Master’s degree in Information Technology, Mr. Khan has made a complete career change and chose to embark on paramedic pathway training with Australian Paramedical College due to its flexibility, self-paced learning environment, expert trainers, and competitive prices. His paramedic pathway training involved being enrolled in a Diploma of Emergency Health Care, having had completed a Certificate IV in Health Care in record time previously.
Manager of Australian Paramedical College, Brendan Wilkie, says Asif is very passionate about Paramedics and is currently completing his studies in record time.“ It is always rewarding speaking to students such as Asif who have a defined purpose for completing their course, which in this case could help many thousands,” Mr Wilkie said.
Australian Paramedical College offers paramedic pathway courses incuding: HLT31120 – Certificate III in Non-Emergency Patient Transport, HLT41020 – Certificate IV in Health Care, and HLT51020 – Diploma of Emergency Health Care. By choosing a pathway through this college students also have the opportunity to advance into a Bachelor of Paramedicine, which accelerates learning outcomes, halves total program time and saves nearly $20,000 in educational fees.