Nominations are accepted throughout the year.
The Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence was established in 2012 in honour of Russel Liston, who sadly died at the age of 34 in 2011. Russell was an exceptional SAAS Intensive Care Paramedic and a true professional. To his family, he was much loved and is greatly missed. To his friends, he was loyal and always great fun. To his colleagues, he was an intelligent, highly skilled paramedic and natural leader. To his students, he was an outstanding educator and mentor, and he took great pride in the development of his students. To his patients, he was professional, confident, and caring. All traits of an excellent and well-rounded clinician.
Since 2012, the Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence has been awarded at the completion of each academic year to a Flinders University paramedic student in the final year of the Bachelor of Paramedic Science who demonstrates the most outstanding clinical excellence during their clinical placements with SA Ambulance Service.
Nominations are being accepted from SA Ambulance Service staff who host a third-year student as part of their clinical placement requirements for their Bachelor of Paramedic Science degree. Nominees should display clinical excellence in any or all of five key areas of clinical excellence: professionalism, clinical care, patient advocacy, interpersonal skills, and clinical knowledge – all areas of which Russell upheld to an exceptional standard.
The award selection panel includes representatives of SA Ambulance Service (in the past this has been Keith Driscoll and/or Paul Lemmer) and Flinders University paramedicine academic staff members who will determine the recipient of the award from the nominations received.
The prize consists of a certificate and $500, generously donated by the Australasian College of Paramedicine.
How to nominate:
To nominate a third-year paramedic student from Flinders University please email paramedicine@flinders.edu.au with the subject ‘Russell Liston Award nomination’. Within your email, please include the student’s name, date and call sign of the clinical placement shift(s), and a brief summary of why you are nominating the student, and where possible, with specific examples of how the student displayed excellence in one or more of the five key areas of clinical excellence.
- Professionalism
Consider appearance and cleanliness, promptness for shift, emotional intelligence displayed, attitude of continuing development, initiative etc. - Clinical Care
Consider patient assessment skills, clinical decision-making ability, incorporation of evidence-based healthcare etc. - Patient Advocacy
Consider promotion of patient safety, navigation of the health care system, patient education, escalation of care etc. - Interpersonal Skills
Consider communication with patients, staff and other healthcare workers, use of body language, display of compassion etc. - Clinical Knowledge
Consider knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology etc.
Past recipients of the award can be seen here.
To demonstrate the impact that this award can have on these students, below are the previous recipients and what they are up to now:
2012: Bianca Hillier
Bianca Hillier was the inaugural recipient of the Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence in 2012.
Since this time, Bianca has fulfilled many career goals and enjoyed a very rewarding career as a Paramedic with SA Ambulance Service. After completing her Paramedic Internship in 2013, she has worked in many different areas within SAAS including as an operational on-road position, relieving Clinical Instructor working with new Interns, helping to facilitate scenarios, and teaching through Clinical Education. Bianca has also become a Driver Development Unit Instructor. Bianca was previously the Paramedic representative on the Clinical Advisory Group and was involved in the development and review of new guidelines and developing papers to obtain new clinical equipment. Bianca has thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of her career but has especially enjoyed the teaching roles and being part of and assisting new Interns to transition from university to working as Operational Paramedics.
“The Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence was an incredible honour to have received and one that I have held very close for all these years.”
2013: Christian Marx
Christian Marx was originally from Germany. He immigrated to Australia in 2011 and immediately enrolled in the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at Flinders University. Christian graduated in 2013 and since then has had quite a varied career. Christian worked full-time as an SAAS paramedic for approximately two years following his graduation. Christian completed his paramedic internship in the eastern area but has since worked across all of metropolitan Adelaide.
Christian enrolled in the Doctor of Medicine program at Flinders University from which he graduated in 2019. While studying his medical degree, he worked casually as a PTS Ambulance Officer. Since graduating from his medical degree, he has worked in multiple medical fields, including trauma, surgery and critical care and has recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments with a focus on expedition medicine.
Christian is currently working as an orthopaedic registrar at Flinders Medical Centre with a long-term plan to specialise in trauma/orthopaedic surgery with a special interest in expedition and mountain medicine.
2014: Jude Bottos
Hugh Wirth & Jude Bottos (pictured on the right) doing clinic duty at Miwatj during Gama Festival 2018. Jude graduated from the Flinders NT MD program in 2019
2015: Vincent Brown
Vincent moved to the UK to join the London Ambulance Service shortly after graduating in 2016. He has worked in various secondments, such as on the Fast Response Unit as a solo responder, in the clinical hub doing telephone assessments, and in the Operation Placement Centre mentoring newly qualified paramedics and technicians. During this time he was even filmed for BBC’s “Ambulance” TV show. Vincent now works as an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner in Urgent Care, assessing and treating complex patients in the community. As part of this role, he rotates through shifts as a solo responder, in a GP practice, and in an Urgent Care Centre, while also studying an MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice.
2016: Gabriel Hicks
Gabriel was very proud to receive the Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence and used the award money to buy some carefully researched medical textbooks, where they were dutifully shipped with him to his first job with London Ambulance Service. Gabriel later headed back home to Adelaide where he joined SAAS as a Paramedic. The textbooks have now moved with Gabriel again to Geelong, where they are on his prescribed readings for medical school at Deakin University so they must have been a good choice! Gabriel is very grateful to all those involved in the award and is proud to honour Russell’s legacy.
2017: Maurice Shanahan
After finishing his paramedic degree, Maurice was unfortunately unable to secure a job with SAAS so kept his options open by applying internationally, interstate and sitting the GAMSAT test for medicine. After achieving a high enough score with the GAMSAT, he decided further study was the right career path. Maurice has enjoyed some time studying rurally at Goolwa Medical Centre and South Coast District hospital, which both had welcoming teams and challenged his abilities as a student. He has one more year to complete his medical degree, which will include placements in Port Lincoln, Alice Springs and Flinders Hospital.
2018: Megan Papalia (Milde)
Megan graduated from the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at Flinders University in 2018 and was fortunate enough to be successful in gaining an internship position with SA Ambulance Service in mid-2019. Since then, she has completed her internship on both West A and D shift lines.
Megan is currently working as a qualified paramedic on North D and has been for almost two years, however she is soon to be moving to a permanent position on the new 10.5-hour roster. Megan highlights that the job has its challenges but loves it and is happy that she made the career change over from physiotherapy!
2019: Wyatt Green
Wyatt was incredibly honoured and humbled to receive the Russel Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence in 2019, especially considering the quality of paramedic students he was fortunate enough to go through university with. After graduating, he gained employment with NSW Ambulance at the start of COVID. He was very blessed to be posted to Albury for his internship and worked with 6 amazing mentors, all who had an impact in moulding him into the clinician he is today. Wyatt loved working regionally and being put in some crazy situations with just his partner, with no other resources coming. After qualifying, he was shipped to Deniliquin (home of the Deni Ute Muster) which was a steep learning curve and even more regional than Albury. After 9 months of long days followed by sleepless nights on call in Deni, he moved to Broken Hill. Broken Hill is called the wild west of NSW for a reason and has provided some unique situations, but Wyatt is lucky enough to have some amazing colleagues there. With NSW Ambulance significantly expanding their paramedic numbers, he has recently been working with interns which has come with new challenges, however, is very rewarding. Wyatt would love to return to SA and work for SAAS one day in the future with his friends from university, but he is still enjoying his interstate adventures for now.
2020: Laura Schultz
Laura was the very fortunate recipient of the 2020 Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence!
After completing year 12, Laura took a gap year collecting blood in her hometown’s public hospital. After lots of consideration, she settled on pursuing a career as a paramedic and started her undergraduate studies at Flinders in 2018. Laura had incredible placement supervisors, peers, and teachers during the degree which built up her confidence tremendously and helped to foster such a love of healthcare that she decided to pursue postgraduate study.
Laura has completed her first year studying medicine at Flinders and hopes to see work in the emergency world in the not-too-distant future!
2021: Rhys Kavanagh-Jones
Rhys was the recipient of the 2021 Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence. This was an honour and Rhys was humbled to be the recipient of such a prestigious and meaningful award.
Rhys is soon to begin his career in Paramedicine with SAAS. Reflecting upon his time at Flinders University, Rhys feels privileged to have been recognised for clinical excellence and to have had the opportunity to apply his knowledge under the dedicated mentorship of so many wonderful paramedics.
Rhys feels it is an honour to have his name associated with Russell’s as he strives to emulate his example throughout his career.
Please consider nominating an exceptional third-year Flinders University paramedic student for the Russell Liston Award for Paramedic Clinical Excellence at any time of year via email: paramedicine@flinders.edu.au