Every time actress Alexandra Davies features in another dramatic scene as Cate McMasters, Registered Nurse and Ambulance Paramedic at All Saints General Hospital, the phones run hot at Charles Sturt University (CSU). That’s because CSU is one of the few universities in Australia to offer the double degree Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Clinical Practice (Paramedic). Veronica Madigan, senior lecturer and PHC (pre-hospital care) course coordinator, says CSU started pre-hospital care education in Australia and was the first to offer the double degree. This year it was the most popular double degree to enrol at CSU. “The television drama All Saints has a couple of nurses who are also fully trained paramedics.You see them in their two uniforms at different times in the show so one day they might be a triage sister and in the next scene they might be out on the road as a paramedic,”  Veronica Madigan explained. In Menindee (population 980, 110 kilometres south-east of Broken Hill) there are no doctors but there are Advanced Care Nurses who are also paramedics. “At night they instantly revert to the ambulance service. When there’s a call out they are the ones who jump in the ambulance and retrieve the patients and decide whether or not they need to be flown out or taken on-road to Broken Hill. The diversity is amazing and one of the reasons our students are keen about this course.”