Hit reality show Paramedics returns to Channel Nine this February

When paramedic Glenice Winter joined Ambulance Victoria in 1991, the then 23-year-old joined a cohort that had only opened itself up to women five years earlier.

“In the early days, there was a really strong sisterhood,” she says. “Even though the blokes were beautiful, there was a strong bond with those old girls in the job.”

Some 28 years later, that original group of women still reunites twice a year, and Winter credits a supportive network of friends and colleagues with helping her navigate a high-pressure job.

“[Paramedics], they’re a really good bunch of people,” she says. “They’re lifelong friends and they just get your back in the truck each day. The environment can be really stressful, but it’s the people you work with who get you through.”

Winter reunited with her old friend and former student Paul – a tattooed Harley Davidson rider otherwise known as Doddsy – for the second season of popular Channel Nine reality show Paramedics. It had been 16 years since they’d last worked together.

“I figured out early on that Doddsy and myself weren’t on the show for our good looks,” she says.

“I initially thought I’d be quite nervous filming, but we weren’t. Doddsy and I usually work on single-responder sedans … so to have the opportunity to work on a truck with one of your best mates was absolutely fantastic. The stress is halved. You could send us to anything and we loved it – gobbled it up – whatever we went to.”

The two have supported each other through some tough times in a career that exposes workers to a “quite harsh” side of life, as Winter puts it. “He’s one of those people who, on a down day, I’d ring him and just say, ‘Hi Doddsy, how are you going?’”

Winter helps organise in-field supervision and education for staff, as well as working as a single-responder MICA (Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance) paramedic. That means she can perform more advanced and complicated procedures than Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedics. “Anything that requires that level of skill or drug intervention, then they come to us.”

She’s seen plenty of “hairy situations” over the course of her career, but the variety of work and the fact she’s not stuck in an office helps to keep her coming back.

“You’ll attend some really bad jobs over 30 years, but jeez you’ll also see some beautiful things. I’ve delivered 13 babies. You can’t beat those days, they’re awesome. You see everything from the womb to the tomb. You might see a lot of tomb stuff but the womb stuff, oh that’s just gold.”

As well as giving her an excuse to reunite with her old friend, Winter’s thankful that Paramedics also gave her the opportunity to be a positive role model for her children. “My family absolutely love it. My children are so proud. They can’t wait to tell every single person they meet that I’m on TV. That’s who I did it for: I did it for my teenage kids.”

Paramedics \ The new season returns on February 11 at 9pm on Nine and 9Now.

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