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Interested in training for EMT related positions South Louisiana Community College (SLCC) and MassBay Community Colleges have special programs that are responding to the increasing demand for EMTs. See Article Below:
Filling the training demand for a growing EMT industry
By Garry Boulard, Published July 5, 2007
They may have been facing danger in unthinkably challenging conditions, but when Jan Brobst saw the young emergency technicians on television rescuing hospital patients and other survivors of Hurricane Katrina, she felt a sense of profound satisfaction.
"You always hope that any educational program you are involved with is going to make a difference in the larger community," says Brobst, chancellor of South Louisiana Community College (SLCC). "I was very happy to see that the real ity in this case was that the education worked and the evidence was right there for everyone to see."
The education that Brobst refers to is an ongoing emergency medical technicians (EMT) training program launched in 2003 that is jointly sponsored by SLCC and the Louisiana-based Acadian Ambulance Service, one of the largest emergency medical service companies in the Deep South.
Of the more than two dozen students who enroll in the pro gram every semester, most end up working for Acadian and many of them were involved in rescue efforts - including air evacuations - through out southern Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma rolled through the region in 2005.
"Our need for new EMTs is one that remains steady on an ongoing basis," notes Ray Bias, government relations manager with Acadian, which hires between 400 and 600 new employees annually. "If it wasn't for the new graduates we are getting out of South Louisiana Community College, we would not be able to keep pace, let alone do what we did in New Orleans."
Students learning on-site emergency medical technician (EMT) techniques as part of an ongoing education partnership between South Louisiana Community College and the Acadian Ambulance Service. The program is helping to fill the shortage of EMTs in the area.
Acadian CEO Richard Zuschlag agrees, noting that the company's biggest challenge remains finding enough skilled medical technicians.
"I have open jobs right now for at least 100 qualified people. It has caused a tremendous overtime burden for the rest of the staff and, frankly, is a critical problem for the future growth of this company," he said.
While the demand for new EMTs is perhaps most acute in parts of the South where the hurricanes prompted a mass exodus of people many of whom have yet to return, the overall shortage of EMTs is a national problem as well.
Retention and recruitment of emergency service staff, which includes both EMTs and paramedics, is the number one concern of our members today," says John Becknell, a spokesman with the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. "We are not hearing about it from any one particular state or region, but from everywhere in the country, in both the large and small states."
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, be tween now and 2014 some 60,000 to 70,000 new EMTs will be needed just to keep pace with industry demand. And unlike the shortage of new nurses - which many experts believe is partly fueled by retiring baby boomers in the fie ld and those who will need care - the EMT dearth is nearly entirely a function of the marketplace.
"When you compare the average age, EMTs are among the youngest in the entire healthcare industry," says Susan Chapman, director of Allied Health Workforce Studies at the University of California at San Francisco. "That means that the EMT demand is not something that has happened because people have retired and left this particular field, but rather because of a high turnover in the industry and a marketplace demand that shows no signs of decreasing."
The EMT demand may also be a reflection of populations influx, says John Bellino, chair of the paramedic and EMT program at MassBay Community College ( Massachusetts). She noted that many small towns in Massachusetts, especially in the western part of the state, are seeing a jump in their population, which affects the towns' medical and emergency response services.
"Many of these towns, in response to this growth, are moving from primarily volunteer rescue squads that have handled all of their emergency services before to paid services, which creates a sudden new demand for EMTs," Bellino said.
As a result, EMT has become a hot training program, with a number of organizations offering such programs, from community colleges, to hospitals and private companies. In 2000, there were 132 accredited EMT programs across the country; today, there are about 220, according to Chapman.
And the demand from students is t here, too. North east State Technical Community College (Tennessee ), for example, regularly has up to 40 students enroll for its EMT, first responder and paramedic courses, Bob Carpenter, a spokesperson for the college.
"I am sure the more classes of this type that we were to offer, the more we could fill," he added.
Graduates of the EMT programs not only find jobs with ambulance services, hospitals and fire departments, but they also work as police officers, firefighters and lifeguards, college officials say.
"It is not just the need coming out of the industry, but also the knowledge that this type of training can be used in so many different ways that is creating a demand for these kinds of programs," says Brobst, who expects to see more such programs at colleges.
"We always talk a bout the special partnership between industry and education," Brobst adds. "To me, this kind of training exemplifies that partnership be cause it is so clearly an example of two-year schools responding a very real workplace need."
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