Nada Shoreibah ‘23
Staff Writer
At least ten nights per semester, Davidson student Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) sleep not in their raised twin XL beds, but on cots or couches at the Davidson Fire Department. They await emergency calls from 6 pm to 8 am, passing the time by doing homework, watching television, and, when possible, sleeping. Upon receiving a call, they board the engine alongside staff firefighters to assist with medical transport procedures.
In 2016, the town fire department began accepting volunteer applications from EMT-certified Davidson students. Applicants had either independently obtained certification or were referred by the department to Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) for training. Once approved, they were required to work ten 14-hour night shifts each semester. Originally, volunteers worked weekend nights responding exclusively to calls from the college, but shifts have since extended to include weekdays and all local calls.
While the program has benefited both student participants and the Davidson community at large, logistical setbacks have kept an EMT station from expanding onto campus itself as quickly as Davidson EMTs had hoped.
In an article by Julia Knoerr ‘21 in the Davidsonian’s November 28, 2018, Jonathan Kim ‘19 said “right now, we’re working on setting up a station on campus grounds so we can respond faster and independently. We hope to be entirely student-run [by fall 2019].”
According to Campus Police Chief Todd Sigler, the purpose of establishing a student EMT program was twofold: “In response to a number of alcohol calls, I think that the fire department had an interest in trying to start the program up […] in order to help address that. It also was an effort to try and give students access and exposure to a program that would benefit them.”
The campus police department hoped the EMT program would reduce the number of alcohol-related transports, though this has not been the case. “The numbers are a little high this semester,” said Sigler. “We’ve already exceeded fall of 2018 and fall of 2017 as individual semesters.” Nevertheless, he believes the EMT program has been an overall positive contribution to the campus community. “It’s another resource that is available to college organizations and student groups who are needing somebody to be on hand for first aid.”
Student EMTs currently spend shifts at the fire department, but their current goal remains to be stationed on-campus. This would allow for shorter response times and eliminate unnecessary use of fire department staff and vehicles.
“We’re in the process of trying to get the students enough experience so they can operate independently without us having to take one of our [firefighters] off the truck,” said Bo Fitzgerald ‘99, Cheif of the Davidson Fire
epartment. “Hopefully in a few years we’ll be able to have at least one of the [Student EMTs] who’s been on for two or three years […] and can know when to call for more help and when not to.”
“The fire department would still be there if we needed them,” explained student EMT Zach Miller ‘20. “But we would tell them immediately whether they needed to come […] or if it was something we could handle.”
Fitzgerald and former student EMTs initially planned to finalize a student-run station by this fall, but logistical challenges have stretched the timeline. Primarily, the EMT certification program that volunteer applicants were referred to for training is no longer offered as of last spring. “We did a hybrid course where we did half online work with Central Piedmont Community College and half night sessions that were every other week,” said Lilly Hennessey ‘20, who received her certification two years ago.
CPCC has since ended the hybrid program, which was well-suited to Davidson students because of its online element. The other EMT training course offered by the college is fully in person and therefore requires a twenty-minute drive to Charlotte several times a week. “Last spring…they tried to have students take night classes with a full time course,” said Hennessey. “It was too much and all of them ended up quitting because they couldn’t keep up with their schoolwork.”
Fellow student EMT Hannah Mallard ‘21 added, “We really have been trying to work with CPCC to bring back some sort of system where students could feasibly take on EMT classes while being a student at Davidson […] but they have kept refusing.”
As a result, the program has struggled to retain enough volunteers with adequate experience to respond unsupervised. “Most of us are seniors who will be graduating this year,” said Miller, “so even if we were comfortable doing it on our own, in a year that number will drop back down.”
To remedy this, the program is advising interested students to pursue training on their own before applying for a volunteer position at the Davidson station. “Now we’re looking at this model where we ask the students to get [their EMT certification] on their own, maybe over the summer, then come back to us,” said Fitzgerald. According to Mallard, “There’s even talk about being able to reimburse them after they finish the course so that [money’s] not an obstacle.”
Overseeing the application process is Captain Ben Atwell of the Davidson Fire Station, who stated, “we held an information session in September. The application…closed on October 1st, and we will start the interview process within the month.” New student EMTs will begin working night shifts at the station by Fall of 2020.
Atwell cited finding a location on campus for student EMTs to be stationed as a central challenge. “We are looking for a spot where the student EMT can work, undistracted, but also sleep, eat, and study during their shift. Davidson College has a lot of renovations going on at the moment, so this also limits options the College has for us.”
A decrease in weekend call demand has also challenged student EMTs to gain the work experience necessary to respond without professional firefighter assistance. “Call volume dropped substantially, which is a good thing from our standpoint. The bad thing about it is they’re just not getting as much experience as we had initially hoped,” said Fitzgerald. To compensate, volunteer shifts are no longer limited to weekend nights. “Now we’re letting them ride along with the trucks any night of the week… to hopefully get some more calls in and around town.”
Hennessey noted that weeknight shifts are especially strenuous. “Last year, we could do two weekdays and the rest were weekends, but now we can just do any day of the week,” she said. “If we get a lot of calls it can impact your sleep, which can…make it harder to keep up with schoolwork.”
Despite these difficulties, student EMTs continue to work with the college and fire department towards setting up a campus station. Miller is hopeful about the goal’s progress. “I think it’s definitely possible that that happens, at least a few trial runs this spring.” Atwell shared a similar sentiment: “We still continue to strive to meet this goal. It unfortunately just takes a lot of time and there are a lot of logistics involved. Every semester we are getting closer to achieving [it].”
Originally published at http://www.davidsonian.com/student-emts-continue-to-push-for-campus-station/
Julia Knoerr ‘21
Staff writer
The Davidson Fire Department once relied entirely on volunteers, many of whom were Davidson College students. However, increasing calls and training standards challenged volunteers to meet requirements and staff fire engines. In an e-mail, Davidson Fire Department Chief Bo Fitzgerald ’99 illustrated, “The department ran around 270 calls my senior year in 1999. This year, we’ll respond to roughly 1600 calls for service.” Consequently, paid firefighters from larger departments replaced volunteers, eliminating opportunities for Davidson students.
In 2016, the fire department began training Davidson students as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to address growing call demand. Fitzgerald stated, “The biggest goal…was to lighten the load for our downtown engine company. Every time the engine responded to the college for a call, this meant that it was not available to respond to other calls in town.”
In an e-mail, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life Jason Shaffer specified the program’s intention “to reduce the impact [of] medical evaluations for intoxicated students.” The number of campus medic transports has varied over the past three years; Campus Police Chief Todd Sigler shared that in 2016, 26 students were transported, but that number rose to 38 in 2017. For 2018, there have been 23 transports to date.
The new program focuses specifically on Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Fitzgerald remarked, “With the [Davidson] academic workload, it probably isn’t feasible for students to spend roughly 300 hours training to be a firefighter. But half of our calls aren’t fire calls at all—they’re EMS calls.”
EMT positions also require significant time commitment. Students work eight 14-hour shifts per semester on Friday or Saturday nights. Each shift lasts from 6pm to 8am. Cam Hall ’21 explained that “training is a full course load, so last semester I spent probably 200 hours [on] coursework, and that includes 72 hours of ride time, plus a lot of Saturdays…and Thursdays in class.”
Fitzgerald commented on the program’s work-school balance, sharing, “The college has been very supportive so far, and we try to make sure that our team members maintain a good balance between academics and their duties as EMTs. This means that students must maintain a minimum GPA [of 2.5] (we check this periodically). Academics come first, and we try to reinforce this.”
Conversely, Mia Guzynski ’19 remarked, “I think it’s very challenging to balance with school…It feels like you have got an on-campus job that you don’t get paid for.” As a next step, Hall and Ricky Granger ’21 believe students should receive academic course credit.
Within the program, Granger finds coordinators accommodating to students’ needs. He also recognizes less flexible aspects, such as study abroad: “obviously you’re missing a lot of shifts, and that’s not ideal for the program… because you have to keep up with continuing education.”
Despite high time commitments, the EMT program widely benefits students and community members. Guzynski noted, “You get a lot of actual patient contact, which is not something that, as an undergrad, is really open [with] a lot of other volunteer positions.”
While many students participate for volunteer hours, she indicated, “It’s not the most efficient way to get active volunteer hours because I’ve had 5 or 6 shifts where I’ve gotten zero calls.” However, calls give early, hands-on medical experience, making the program worthwhile.
Furthermore, Guzynski added, “You get to see the college from a very different perspective because [EMTs] respond first to [incidents] like the druggings or cases of sexual assault.”
Additionally, student lead Hannah Doyle ’19 strongly supports the program’s mission, explaining, “…my [first] year here, I lived on third Belk, and the first weekend on campus, there were 16 transports from Belk alone. That blew my mind, so I wanted to help the community.”
Beyond medical training, the program offers practice in professional settings. Interactions with firemen or patients in the Davidson and Charlotte areas , for example, provide useful experience.
Jonathan Kim ’19, also a student lead, added, “It’s a really fast-paced job you have to do [in] a really high stress environment.” Thus, students can assess career paths, such as pre-hospital work and emergency medicine. He emphasized, “It really clearly lets you know whether you’re right for a field like that or not.”
The role also presents personal challenges. Hall expressed, “It can be emotionally taxing. I don’t know how many other EMTs have had the experience of a patient dying, but it’s hard.”
The position requires significant responsibility, and students hold liability. Doyle explained, “In a medical scenario, we can be held liable if we were trained to do something and we did that thing wrong…that’s why currently we’re still with the firemen when we go on calls.” They must ensure EMTs are within protocol and comfortable with their skills.
Like other medical professionals, EMTs take confidentiality under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Hall shared, “There certainly are challenges with confidentiality because legally we can’t say much about our patient interactions, and the laws are technically only referring to identifying information. I’ve seen students on campus and had patients on campus, and seeing them afterwards is not a big deal, but I just have to make sure that I never say anything.”
Similarly, Guzynski noted, “It’s kind of challenging with a small campus, but it is very serious.” Confidentiality is crucial to the program; Fitzgerald emphasized, “The success of this program depends on students being able to trust that those coming to their aid will not go out and gossip about or publicize their private information.”
Because the program is relatively new, it has also faced organizational challenges and improvements. Guzynski noted, “What I signed up for is absolutely not what this turned out to be. I was in the first class that ever ran, so obviously there were a lot of problems, and there wasn’t a formalized way of collecting feedback…But the program is so much better run now.”
EMTs have not received help from anyone affiliated at the college, but student leads hope to increase interaction. Kim elaborated, “Right now, we’re working on setting up a station on campus grounds so we can respond faster and independently. We hope to be entirely student run [by fall 2019].” Fitzgerald feels optimistic about the program’s direction.
On campus, the EMT program has begun improving student awareness and responsibility around drinking. Kim offered, “We’ve seen a steady decline in the number of transports we’ve had to do over the years, so I’d say that’s a good sign that there is positive change that’s happening.”
Originally published at http://www.davidsonian.com/student-emts-alleviate-campus-transports/
