County EMT classes start soon; spaces left

Caribou County will be beginning a class to provide training for Basic EMT certification next month.  While there are a few fulltime positions with the county’s emergency services, the majority of those involved are volunteers, who receive nominal compensation for their commitment to making sure that the county is ready to respond to medical emergencies wherever they arise.  Currently, the county has a few more than 40 volunteers, though it is funded for around 60.  The class will result in a new batch of EMT volunteers, but there is still room for more to sign up.

The class will take place from October 14 through February 10.  There will be one class session in person during the week, and online supplementary material on the other days.  The total commitment is about 180 hours.  

“There’s online work they need to do, and then every Tuesday night we meet here from six to ten and go over skills and hands-on stuff, and cover what they learned over the week online,” EMT Trainer Kya Simmons said.  “At the end of all that we have testing that we do here, to make sure that they  are good on all their skills, and then there’s a national test that they’ll need to take at the end of class.  Once you get done with the class, you test nationally and that’s where you get your EMT license.”

The class covers life-savings techniques that will be used in the field, and as such the oversight is significant and rigorous.  “There are skill sheets that we sign off on—medical trauma, longboard immobilization, things like that—and once they feel comfortable with those we pass them off with a test.”

The class involves three to four chapters a week.  Kya Simmons recently finished the Advanced EMT class, which has a similar workload by hours.  “I’d say it took me about two hours a day.  But I’m a note-taker, and it might take me a little longer.  My husband was about thirty minutes to an hour.  It just depends on how much you want to study into what you’re reading.”

EMTs with the county work twelve hour shifts, for which they are paid $10.  While on shift, they receive an additional $14 per call.

Linda Hemmert stated, “We had someone a few years ago who got their first compensation check and thought I messed up.  She worked all these hours, and I told her you don’t get paid ten dollars an hour—that’s per shift!”  Hemmert has been on staff in Caribou County for 27 years, and while the job has remained the same in a lot of ways, she does note that there seem to be fewer people who will volunteer these days.  “People don’t want to volunteer just to volunteer as much.  But we do need volunteers, that’s the thing.”

Basic EMTs can do basic airway responses, as well as burn care, tourniquets, diabetic emergency response, and more.  Basic EMTs serve as first line responders to emergency events, and usually work in conjunction with Advanced EMTs.

“We like to send three people on a call, but if there’s only two we can manage with two.  You have one driving and one in the back with the patient.  And that’s our minimum.”  

Anyone interested in the class can pick up an application from the EMS/Ambulance bay just down the alley from the courthouse.  The class is sponsored by the county, and “we have an expectation that they will stay on with us the life of the license, which is three years,” Simmons said.  “They’re getting a free class, but we do ask that they stay on with us.”

Volunteers are required to be from within the county, though there are some exceptions for those in Bailey Creek, Thatcher, and other areas that are essentially within the same driving distance to the bay as the rest of the county.  Applicants need to be sixteen and eligible to take the class through a background check.

“Background check is the big thing,” Linda Hemmert noted.  “But that doesn’t go through us—that goes to the state, and they’re the ones who approve it.”

Asked what kinds of people should volunteer, Hemmert said, “people who really want to do it, and not just for the radio and the t-shirt.”

Simmons laughed.  “We’ve had those, for sure.  But people who really care, and people that really want to do it, and don’t just want to go on the calls that are exciting, like car accidents, but also want to go help a 90-year old female off the floor.  We want people who realize that it isn’t all just car wrecks and big trauma calls.  It’s also sick people and people that have fallen, and things like that.”

Drivers are also always needed.  They are not required to take the Basic EMT class, but unless they do they cannot perform EMT functions.  However, they can assist with some skills, and certainly it provides a good way for them to gauge their interest in going on with EMS.

“We encourage people to start as drivers,” Hemmert said.  “That way they can see if this is something they really want to do, instead of finding that out halfway through the class.  That’s how I started, I was a driver and then took the next class that came along.” 

Grace, specifically, could use drivers at present, as well as volunteers.  

“A lot of times, we find that many people who would be good for it have already been EMTs, and they don’t necessarily want to do it again.  And then some of the younger people are not interested in doing it for free .  They want to make the big bucks, but we’re volunteers here.”

Kya and Linda will both be helping with the class.  Kya just got her teaching certification, and Linda is the HIPAA officer for the county.  

Applications are still available at the EMS building, which can be reached at (208) 547-4324 or on the county’s website.