More than 100 public safety communications professionals hailing from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Greece attended the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch’s (IAED) UK NAVIGATOR conference Sept. 22–24 in Bristol, England.
UK NAVIGATOR is one of eight international events presented by the IAED annually as premier educational conferences for medical, fire, and police public safety and emergency response professionals.
Scott Freitag, IAED President, kicked off UK NAVIGATOR with the Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) re-accreditation award presented by IAED Accreditation Board Chair Jerry Overton to the England-based agency East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The award represents the agency’s second re-accreditation since 2009.
The UK NAVIGATOR 2015 Dispatcher of the Year Award was presented by Beverley Logan, IAED Accreditation Officer, to Zoe Scott, an emergency calltaker with North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust in England. In total, 10 individuals were nominated for the accolade.
Scott utilized lifesaving Pre-Arrival Instructions from the IAED’s Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) to instruct a caller how to dislodge a coin from her 2-year-old son’s throat.
“I’ve never been so frightened in my life,” Vicky Martin, the boy’s mother, told the Great Manchester Evening News. “Zoe answered my 999 call and somehow managed to completely calm me down and talk me through exactly what I needed to do. She was able to convince me that it was going to work. That day Zoe turned up for work, we found our guardian angel.”
Louise Todd, IAED Clinical Support Officer, said Scott is a credit to the profession and the MPDS.
“Zoe has faced this and many other distressing calls over the course of her career,” Todd said. “However, she continually demonstrates that ability to work well under stress. She has demonstrated compliance to the protocol and strives to continuously achieve this.”
Among other highlights at UK NAVIGATOR 2015 was the inaugural presentation of the Instructor of the Year Award to John Kilroe with North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust in England.
“John was extremely proud to receive the award and totally deserves the recognition for his commitment to Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) training for so many years,” Logan said.
About the IAED
The IAED is the world’s foremost standard-setting, certification-granting organization for emergency communications with over 57,000 members in 45 countries. More than 3,000 communication centers in 21 languages and dialects use IAED’s protocols and training in medical, fire, police, and emergency nurse triage dispatching. Of those, nearly 200 comm. centers have become Accredited Centers of Excellence (ACEs).
About PDC
Priority Dispatch Corp. provides research-based protocol solutions to emergency call centers in medical, fire, police, and nurse triage disciplines. PDC is the only dispatch system provider with an in-house research and development organization and the approval of a recognized body of industry experts, the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED).