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By ADAM BOWIE
bowie.adam@dailygleaner.com

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A paramedic who completed her training in Newfoundland says Ambulance NB isn't playing fair with its hiring practices.

Brooke McConkey, a St. Stephen native who completed a primary care paramedicine course in Newfoundland earlier this year, said she believes Ambulance NB would rather hire paramedics who have trained at the Atlantic Paramedic Academy as opposed to elsewhere in the country or in Maine.

McConkey said she contacted officials with the provincial ambulance system before completing her training program to find out what she needed to do to be considered for vacant paramedic positions in her home province.

She said she found it difficult to get responses to her questions, and often the information she received left out important dates for orientation sessions and clinical evaluations.

"It was just one big runaround basically," she said.

Officials from Ambulance NB said 88 of the 105 paramedics hired so far in 2008 have been newly trained paramedic-school graduates. But only two of those 88 hires were paramedics who had completed training outside of New Brunswick.

Chris Hood, executive director of the Paramedic Association of New Brunswick, said he's heard from a number of people who passed their provincial licensing exam but have been unable to find a job with Ambulance NB. He said many of the people having the most trouble were trained outside of New Brunswick.

"I've heard from some people (from the program) in Ontario that still haven't received calls back, and I've heard from one person in the U.S. program that's not received a call back," he said.

"I think they're having the same experience as (McConkey) had."

Hood said New Brunswick needs to hang on to valuable human resources.

McConkey said she'll be moving on to a high-paying job as a paramedic in Alberta because she needed to start earning money as soon as possible.

She said she would have preferred to work in her home province, but she got sick of waiting for the phone to ring.

"I applied to jobs all over New Brunswick because I wanted to stay here," she said.

"My family is from this area ... But I hadn't heard back from anyone. Ambulance NB has not contacted me on any occasion. It's been me (chasing) after them every time."

Ambulance NB CEO Rock Marois said he's disappointed to hear McConkey had trouble communicating with the system's hiring officers.

"This year, with the volume of activity, it's not impossible that things didn't go as well for her (as they could have)," he said.

"It's unfortunate, but it could have happened. But if she wants to talk about it, I'd be more than willing to listen to her."

Marois said he'll be looking into the matter, but he hasn't heard anything about this problem before.

"If it happened like that, then it's too bad," he said. "I'd like to learn more about it so if there are things to change, we could."

He said it's only logical to assume paramedics studying in New Brunswick would be better prepared to find work with the provincial system.

"These people heard about the process while they were in class, they're more familiar with the (paramedic association's) licensing (process). We visited the classes to talk about the protocols, so I think it's only normal that they'd be more familiar."

He said Ambulance NB has no hiring preference, and would accept any applicant who can demonstrate the required capabilities.