In the last week of October, Byron and Andrew from St John Ambulance in England took part in a volunteer swap with Johanniter Austria for their National Holiday Celebrations in Vienna. The events at the National Holiday at Heldenplatz and Rathausplatz in the very center of Vienna include presentations of the Austrian Army and a broad variety of institutions involved in security, disaster prevention and health services. About 100.000 visitors regularly participate at the events. Johanniter provide the most ambulance resources together with Malteser, Red Cross and Samaritarians. This is what the English visitors report:
On Day 1, we arrived in to be met by Tom, the volunteer coordinator for Johanniter Austria who took us to the base in Vienna. We were surprised by how big and modern the building was, with a basement garage filled with ambulances. Our accommodation was actually a guest room they had on the base, with an en suite and TV!
To end the first day, we headed into Vienna for a Wiener Schnitzel then back for an early start.
The first day of the National Feiertag was for kids, so lots of time for us to explore the site and stalls when we weren’t helping our Austrian counterparts set up the various tents and gazebos.
Second day was the busier day, this is when the main parade happens with the new armed forces recruits swearing their oath in front of the President and other esteemed guests.
Typically, the patients on this day are soldiers that pass out from standing in formation for so long, Die Johanniter will treat the soldiers rather than the military, so it’s an interesting experience. Usually there are about 70+ soldiers that come through the door.
Amusingly, at the treatment centre, there’s a box that is guarded by the military police, for the guns of these soldiers being treated as we don’t want them lying about the place.
As the weather on the big day was cold and cloudy with a bit of drizzle, we didn’t have many patients come through to us. But when we did, it was a very new experience to have to deal with a language barrier as the clinical lead did all the talking and we just did the observations. (With the occasional “Entschuldigung…Blutzucker!” from myself when wanting to get their blood glucose.)
Alongside the Austrians, we had some external help from Johanniter Germany, Austrian Red Cross, the Bundesheer medics and ‘Malteser’ from the Sovereign Order of Malta too, so we had people from multiple different organisations coming together to help out.
It was a great experience to talk to everyone, to compare similarities and differences in our ways of working. There were quite a lot of young Austrian volunteers who stuck around after their mandatory “National Service” where they had to choose between the military or healthcare when they came of age, which was nice to see that they really enjoyed their volunteering experience. Our hosts were very welcoming and accommodating, more than happy to repeat any briefings to us in English, and most importantly, checked that we were fed and watered.
I would say that from the both of us, we would wholeheartedly recommend looking at the Johanniter International website to see what swaps are left this year or look to help out when the 2025 dates are updated. I also had the pleasure to meet the President of Johanniter Austria who was also previously the Chair of Johanniter International, Johannes actively sought us out and was delighted to hear that we were enjoying our swap.
I’m looking forward to my next adventure with JOIN!