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Emergency Medical Services – NACC
Prepares You for a Rewarding Career
People’s lives often depend on the quick reaction and competent
care of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics.
They provide vital attention as they care for and transport the
injured or sick to a medical facility.
National estimates indicate that the job market for emergency
medical services is expected to grow by 20 percent within the
next ten years. Formal training and certification are needed to
become an EMT or Paramedic. If you are interested in becoming an
EMT or Paramedic, Northeast Alabama Community College can
provide you with the necessary training and help you get
certified. If this field appeals to you, then check out the many
possibilities that Northeast has to offer. It is a career with
many rewards.
Current or past students in the EMS program at Northeast
discussed their choices on entering the emergency medical
services field.
Scot Westbrook of Fyffe and Ben West of Sylvania are both
sophomores enrolled in the Paramedic program at Northeast, both
work full-time at the Fort Payne Fire Department, and work as
needed with the DeKalb Ambulance Service.
Westbrook explained that he enrolled in the Paramedic program
because, “as time goes on, as an EMT, you realize that you can’t
keep up with the amount and type of calls on the job that you
get unless you receive further education. To be a fireman, you
must have at least Basic EMT training. Being a paramedic is not
required, but it limits you on the medical side when you go on a
call and certain treatment is needed.”
“I realized early that as an EMT I needed to move forward and
become a paramedic,” said West. “It’s an issue of
responsibility. When someone calls for help, they want folks
coming into their home that are well trained. For instance, if
you have a heart attack, stroke, or a sick child, you want the
people responding to be professional, at the top of their field.
We want to help people by giving them the very best care and get
them in better shape than we found them.”
“If you want to become an EMT or Paramedic, you need to know how
rigorous and physical the training can be and that the medical
side includes a lot of academics; but it’s all worth it,” said
Westbrook.
West added, “You need to be dedicated to really want to do this.
Once past the dedication stage, you need to become an EMT, and I
suggest, work in the field for a while, then pursue the
Paramedic program. As an EMT, you will know if this is the right
career for you. As an EMT you will discover that you are limited
in the range of help you can administer. There’s so much more
you can do with the Paramedic training. And, to move up in your
career, you need to go on and get your two-year Associate’s
degree.”
“It’s convenient to attend, Northeast is only 15 minutes away,”
said Westbrook. “Northeast has good facilities and good
instructors.”
West agreed, “It’s so close to home with lots of experienced
faculty in the field. Most importantly, you get lots of one of
one time with instructors in learning practical skills.”
Future plans for Westbrook include “being a fireman until I am
unable to be one. I want to finish my degree and hopefully
return to teach here at the College. Working as a fireman/EMT
can be monotonous at times, but the flexible schedule allows you
to do others things.”
West, too, wants to continue working as a fireman. “It is my way
of giving back to the community and to the College,” he said.
“You work hard the 24 hours you are there, but you do have
flexibility in your schedule.”
When did West know he had chosen the right field? “I worked a
call where a girl was entrapped and was severely injured. It
took a long time for us to extract her and she was conscious the
whole time. Three months later, she came to the station to
express her gratitude and to thank those of us who had helped
her, who had stayed with her and reassured her. Seeing her be
able to walk into the station after having undergone such an
experience, well, that was my moment. It was early in my career;
it made me want to train more and to be able to help others
better. You see a lot of death and tragedy in this line of work,
but that type of experience makes it all worthwhile.”
Wendy Arnold, a 2008 graduate of the NACC Paramedic program,
stated, “Thanks to the knowledge and skills that I learned at
NACC, a man’s life was saved and he is alive, well, and enjoying
his family to this day.” She went on to explain that a man went
into cardiac arrest at a ball game and thanks to quick action,
CPR was begun while an AED was being prepared. He was
defibrillated, intubated, and given cardiac drugs, all in less
than 10 minutes. “The man’s family thanked the EMS team
repeatedly,” said Arnold. Later that same evening, the patient
himself was able to thank Arnold and her partner. He told them,
“I hear I owe you my life.” Arnold acknowledged that this one
patient made all the heartbreak she had gone through to become a
paramedic, worth it.
Current EMT-Basic student, Pamela Chandler chose the program out
of necessity for her family. She said, “Job security is a
priority in a single parent home like mine. Emergency Medical
Services is only one of the many jobs you know you can depend on
to be there when others seem to vanish. I chose Northeast
because I knew that the college offered a self-paced program,
where I could go at whatever speed I needed, and still be home
for my child. You do have to have a lot of self discipline and
motivation to succeed in the self-paced program to finish at a
certain time, but the good thing is you have great support from
the program. All you have to do is use it. It is hard work and
has to be taken very seriously but at the end of it all you will
have a rewarding and secure job.”
For more information on a rewarding career as an EMT or
Paramedic, contact Program Director Roger Wootten (pictured on
the left, below) phone ext. 355, e-mail
woottenr@nacc.edu. Summer
semester registration is May 29.
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