Rope rescue gets a new twist with all-female training course

Bianca Thomas-Mourne brings a rare combination of frontline experience, specialist clinical expertise, and quiet determination to everything she does. Her work as a trainee specialist practitioner with South Western Ambulance Service is shaping how critically ill patients are treated in hazardous environments and it is also directly informing her commitment to Breaking Boundaries, an initiative designed to increase the visibility and influence of women in rope rescue.

Bianca has spent a decade within the hazardous area response team (HART), first as a paramedic, then as a team educator. Today she is one of only two trainee specialist practitioner roles in her trust. The role, she explains, is in part a response to the findings of the Manchester Arena Inquiry.

Echoing Sir John Saunders, the author of the inquiry report, Bianca is clear: “patients should receive the highest level of clinical care, no matter where they are, and shouldn’t receive any delays to that.” To make that real, her skills and the drugs she carries are aligned with what you would expect on an air ambulance, but delivered in some of the most challenging environments.

“For example; using rope rescue, wherever a patient is located, I’ll be able to get to them and treat them with the same level of care that they would receive on the roadside or in a house.”

What really defines the role, though, is not just advanced interventions but judgement. “It’s a lot of decision making more than the drugs,” she says. “It’s not just I can do all these things, but should I?” That mindset of careful, inclusive, situational decision making flows directly into her work with Breaking Boundaries.

Breaking Boundaries began almost accidentally, as a suggestion from a female coastguard for a female-only CPD day. From there it quickly evolved into a complete ‘beginner to instructor programme’ for women from across the rescue community including fire and rescue, ambulance, search and rescue, lowland rescue, and coastguard.

Bianca, already an experienced rope instructor for HART said she jumped at the chance when invited to help. What started as a single weekend is now a structured pathway, free to attend, designed to grow women instructors in what has historically been a male-dominated specialism. She is quick to credit training provider ISAR3 for helping make that growth possible, through financial support, training facilities and instructors, as well as the backing of director Vernon, whom she describes as the driving force behind the programme’s development.

Just as her specialist paramedic role is about making the right clinical decision in the right way, Breaking Boundaries is about rethinking how rope skills are taught and who gets to lead. Bianca says she and her colleagues refuse to simply recreate existing training models.

“Let’s not recreate the current training system. Let’s change it. What’s going wrong? Why aren’t women joining the rope instructor world? Why aren’t they in this area?”

The answer, they concluded, lies partly in how people are taught. Many women, she notes, “like to see it being done and then have the time and space to do it on their own without everyone watching.” So the programme is deliberately paced, flexible and responsive, with space to repeat, try, and grow without pressure.

Her clinical world also shapes a strong focus on standards and safety. Participants are not given an easy route; there is a three-day external assessment and, as she puts it, “If anything, the women have to outperform because we have to prove ourselves.” The outcome is the same as any other technical rope qualification: a competent, safe professional. The route to get there, however, is more inclusive, more collaborative, and more honest about different learning styles and experiences.

Bianca’s day job is about reaching people in places that are hard to access and giving them care that, until recently, simply was not available there. Her work with Breaking Boundaries is doing something similar for rope rescue by reaching talented women who have found the existing system hard to access, and giving them the skills, confidence and network they need to step forward as instructors and leaders.

This article is part of #SheServesToo, our campaign celebrating the stories of women across the emergency services. #SheServesToo is proudly supported by PBI. Find out more about PBI and its work here. If you have a story to share, get in touch with the EST team.

Bianca will join us on a lunchtime panel at The Emergency Services Show on the Protecting the Protectors stage. We will discuss women in search and rescue and what needs to happen to get kit to fit. The show takes place on 16 and 17 September at the NEC in Birmingham. Register to attend here.