In late 2023 I woke up one day and thought, why on earth am I working all of the time, I never seem to live, just work.  I realised then that after a long career in Paramedicine, that I had reached a point where work was no longer rewarding, and I was more interested in exploring life out on the road.

So I gave up, right then, I wrote a resignation email, gave my mandatory 14 days notice, and resigned my 38 year career as a paramedic.  I then settled in to plan what I would do next.

The video on this page takes you through the rationale I had for leaving my job and also leaving Australia.  I have not looked back since, at the time I am writing this I have been travelling for exactly one year, and I don't see an end in sight.

My Life as a Paramedic

I began my life in Paramedicine way back when, in Australia, we didn’t even use the term paramedic, that was an Americanism that had not arrived here yet. I began as a volunteer Ambulance Officer in Tasmania back in 1985 while I was working as a nurse. I quickly realised that ambulance (or what we now call Paramedicine) was my true calling, and I pulled out all the stops to get a paid job in an ambulance service.

Back in those days ambulance services were pretty diverse in Australia, we had nation leading services (at that time) like Victoria and Tasmania, and we had others… Well I moved to Queensland and became an ambulance officer in the now disbanded Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade, in Townsville. I won’t go into too much depth about the paramedic profession and how it changed in my time here, that will be part of my future writing. But suffice to say that in my career I went from Ambulance Officer (Paramedic) to Station Officer, Intensive Care Paramedic, Educator, Manager and so on. I did this in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria (in the private sector) and even in Vanuatu.

My Academic Tenure

During my career I also found myself working in academia. Shortly after I did my degree I was approached and offered casual tutoring work at the same university I graduated from. This lead to me taking up the paramedic educator role in my ambulance service as well as I discovered my thirst for knowledge and enjoyment in sharing that knowledge. I ended up taking on a role as a Lecturer at Victoria University, then later at the University of Tasmania. I have held roles as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor, Head of Division and Head of Research.

Those of you that know anything about academia won’t be surprised to hear there is a lot of politics in academia, and that tends to get more burdensome with the increase in your role in academia. so, not surprisingly, after about 13 years as a paramedic academic, I decided it was time to go back to clinical practice.  I still hold two adjunct positions, as Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Tasmania and as Adjunct Professor with Charles Sturt University and I still support my research students.

Wait, Why am I doing this?

In January 2023, I decided to go back to being an Intensive Care Paramedic in Tasmania. This wasn’t my first choice, I was actually thinking that early retirement was looking pretty good, but I was not quite brave enough to take that leap. So I went back to clinical practice, where I had to jump through endless hoops (successfully) to return to practice as a Paramedic.

It was not quite a year later that I thought, what on earth am I doing. I had fallen back into old habits, applying for promotions (as a 50+ year old in a young persons profession), looking for that next challenge, and generally becoming frustrated with the system. I was also quickly realising that the body of a mid 50’s unfit, and somewhat overweight, man is not well suited to shift work and the nature of the work paramedicine entails.

I was discussing this realisation with an old friend (and my supervisor now that I was back in the job) who looked at me and said something like, “why are you even here? You don’t have anything to prove.” It was then that I realised, I did this before because I still identified myself as a paramedic, and I was trying to prove my worth, to myself. So a year on, I decided the time had come, and I quit my job.

So What Now? What is my Trichotomy

As an early retiree, yep had to emphasise the early there, what was my plan. Well, it all happened pretty quickly really:

• Step 1; finalise all of my household tasks / renovations [done]

• Step 2; get my finances in order [done]

• Step 3; sell everything, yes everything I own [done]

• Step 4; buy a plane ticket and start living, aka traveling the world.

So my trichotomy is me managing, through my, my three identities.

I am still a paramedic: While I am no longer registered, I still maintain professional networks and professional development.  I have no plan to re-enter the workforce but I may find myself involved in volunteer work or providing education where relevant.

I am still an academic: I still hold professorial appointments at two universities, and I still have PhD students, and I want to continue to contribute in this space, even with new students. 

I am now a full time traveler: My new adventure completes my trichotomy. I have taken the leap and I am sure I am going to experience some amazing things, and learn a lot. Hopefully meeting some amazing people along the way. So I will write about this as it happens and present it on this site on the Blogs page

For more information about me, the following links might be useful:

• https://discover.utas.edu.au/Dale.Edwards

• https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=6Xj7IGcAAAAJ&hl=en

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCloJg7w5tql9TH2RkSSyD1Q (although there isn’t much on this one at the time of writing, it will grow with travel blogging over time)