Emergency services partnership highly commended in 2025 Engagement Australia Excellence Awards
Dr Ashlea Smith, Tanie Stickland, Ellen Newman
An innovative partnership between Monash University, Fire Rescue Victoria, and Ambulance Victoria that trains firefighters to provide medical care in out-of-hospital emergencies has been highly commended in the award for excellence in industry engagement at the 2025 Engagement Australia Excellence Awards .
The Engagement Australia awards identify and celebrate the most exciting and impactful engagement activities undertaken by Australian and New Zealand universities. The award for excellence in industry engagement in particular recognises outstanding collaborations of mutual benefit between tertiary education and industry that contributes to the quality and impact of tertiary education.
Monash Paramedicine’s Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) program is a pioneering collaboration established to enhance emergency medical responses across Victoria. Initially piloted in 1998, the program was designed to equip Fire Rescue Victoria’s firefighters with accredited medical training to support Ambulance Victoria’s paramedics during time-critical medical emergencies, where immediate CPR and defibrillation are essential for patient survival, and where a co-response model could help prevent life-threatening delays.
The partnership was carefully co-developed to combine Monash’s clinical and academic expertise with Fire Rescue Victoria’s operational capabilities and Ambulance Victoria’s clinical oversight. The curriculum design draws on the latest clinical research and educational theory to deliver a rigorous and immersive training experience. It features realistic simulated cardiac arrest scenarios, hands-on skill-building stations, and complex decision-making exercises that prepare participants for the pressures of real emergencies.
The EMR program has delivered transformative outcomes across multiple sectors, demonstrating a comprehensive and sustainable impact on community health, emergency services capability, education, research, and broader socio-economic factors. This partnership also provides a unique opportunity for collaborative research projects that improve emergency care in the community, and offers paramedicine students the chance to undertake authentic simulated training alongside firefighters, fostering career readiness, industry connections and bridging the gap between academic theory and real-world application.
The EMR program is founded on a strong, multifaceted partnership model that ensures shared ownership, operational excellence, and long-term sustainability. The collaboration between Monash University, Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV), and Ambulance Victoria exemplifies a best-practice approach to cross-sector engagement.
Program Director Tanie Stickland from Monash Paramedicine said she was delighted to see the EMR program highly commended by Engagement Australia. “This recognition highlights the power of genuine collaboration between emergency services and higher education,” she said. “The EMR program demonstrates how shared expertise can translate into real-world impact; saving lives, impacting communities, strengthening capability and advancing education and research. I’d like to acknowledge our exceptional team of EMR Instructors, along with Fire Rescue Victoria’s EMS Department and Ambulance Victoria, whose dedication and collaboration over more than 20 years have been instrumental in achieving this recognition”.
Find out more about the Emergency Medical Responder program:
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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