The number of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) in this area has dwindled over the years, as licensed EMTs have retired and fewer applications have come in. Winneshiek, Allamakee, northern Clayton and Fayette Counties in Iowa and Houston and Fillmore Counties in Minnesota are fortunate to have many emergency response services, but nearly all of them are in need of more EMTs on their service to share the call-time, ensuring local emergency services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
NICC is offering a face-to-face EMT Class in Waukon beginning in January 2024. This class is not offered locally each year, so it’s suitable for those wishing to take the course with little travel time. This 138-hour course, which will conclude in May, prepares the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) student to provide pre-hospital assessment and care for patients of all ages with a variety of medical conditions and traumatic injuries.
Areas of study include an introduction to emergency medical services, roles and responsibilities of EMTs, anatomy and physiology, medical emergencies, trauma, special considerations for working in the prehospital setting and providing patient transportation.
Upon successful completion of this course, graduates are eligible to seek national certification as an EMT through the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians. Registration for the class must be completed prior to the orientation night on Jan. 8, 2024.
The EMT class prepares students to provide pre-hospital assessment and care for patients of all ages with a variety of medical conditions and traumatic injuries. Areas of study include an introduction to emergency medical services systems, roles and responsibilities of EMTs, anatomy and physiology, medical emergencies, trauma, special considerations for working in the pre-hospital setting and providing patient transportation.
Enthusiastic, willing volunteers wanting to truly help people are needed to fill this class. The class will meet two nights per week, Mondays and Wednesdays, from 6 to 10 p.m., and clinicals will be held in-person. Students who successfully complete this class and the certification examination will be able to volunteer on their own community’s ambulance service or rescue squad, as well as be prepared for careers in emergency services.
For more information, contact Jacob Dougherty, Paramedic and EMS Manager, or Cheryl Livingston, Paramedic and Class Instructor, at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411. Registration information can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/mpavvar9.
Essential services
Rural EMTs and paramedics, especially volunteers, dedicate a lot of their own personal time in order to provide their community life-saving service at any time of the day or night on top of all of their other responsibilities. That’s why so many of them continued to do it for decades, because it is difficult to find somebody to replace them.
Senate File 615, signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in June 2021 provides the framework for counties to deem the service essential. It allows them to create a referendum to raise property taxes to fund EMS. To date, no counties have established this support for the EMS. To date, six counties have passed voter referendums making EMS services essential in that county and supported with property tax dollars. None of the six are in northeast Iowa.
Over 65 percent of rural first responder units in Iowa noted they were in a shortage of people to work and respond to emergencies. The Iowa EMS System Standards say the response time for an ambulance should not exceed eight minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in rural areas. Response time over 25 minutes for an ambulance call is considered an emergency response desert.
Those looking to give back to their communities can pursue this course and apply to their local Emergency Medical Services unit. Visit with a local unit to see if they offer scholarships toward the cost of the class, as well. Our communities are counting on first responders as a matter of life or death.
We appreciate all our first responders and their willingness to serve.
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