Paramedics leader joins La Trobe

Dr Peter O’Meara has joined La Trobe’s Bendigo campus as professor in rural and regional paramedicine to head up the new paramedics course at the university’s Rural Health School (LRHS). “Professor O’Meara is the first person in Australia who has actually worked as a paramedic and then been recognised as a professor in paramedicine for his unique combination of research and experiential expertise,” said Professor Jane Farmer, head of LRHS. O’Meara has 24-years experience with the Australian ambulance service as a paramedic up until 1997 when he joined academia. In 2002, O’Meara successfully attained his doctorate after completing a thesis on models of ambulance service delivery for rural Victoria. He is president of the Australian and New Zealand Council of Heads of Schools of Paramedic Studies. He has published extensively on the development and organisation of paramedicine.