EMS Academy Launches Third EMT Class

On December 17, 2009, 11 proud students became new EMTs as part of the second graduating class of the St. Paul, MN-based EMS Academy--a cooperative venture between the City of St. Paul and Inver Hills Community College. On June 14, 33 students took the first step to becoming the third class in the newly renovated Fire Station #1, now recommissioned as Fire Station #51 in recognition of the station on the 1970s TV show Emergency!

The program, started one year ago, offers summer employment to low-income St. Paul youth, who are paid to attend the EMT certification program that will hopefully lead to a career in emergency medicine. More than 90 applications were received for this class and 33 were accepted. For the first time, five Native American students are included in the ethnically diverse class, thanks to a donation from the Shakopee, MN-based Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

Station 51, which will be used for teaching firefighting and EMS courses, features classrooms, small breakout rooms for practicing hands-on skills, and several rooms arranged to provide realistic medical patient settings. The fire station apparatus bay will be used for ambulance/fire apparatus operation courses. Students are expected to clean and maintain the facilities during the day.

Student retention was difficult in the first two classes, so a few new things are being tried this time around, says Inver Hills faculty member and Academy instructor David Page, MS, NREMT-P.

"We're using peer tutors from previous classes, and we've purchased 15 laptop computers to help the students study," he says. "FISDAP is providing an online system called EMT Online, where we record staff members doing lectures and the students have access to them. Because we had more time to prepare for this class, we also did more extensive screening and tried to select candidates with reading levels at least above 8th or 9th grade. The students are still getting paid, and we pair them up with a mentor. We're also trying to give them additional handouts before they come to class that include medical terminology so they can start getting their heads wrapped around the new language they'll have to learn."

Graduation from the Academy does not automatically guarantee a job in EMS or fire, says Page.

"People sometimes think that jobs will be open at St. Paul Fire, but we aren't there yet," he says. "There are 3,000 people in line to take the fire department test, and around 2,000 took the agility test after passing the written, so competition for those jobs is such that it's hard to say we'll get 15 or 30 hired. But at least a half-dozen of our graduates have passed the written test, which is significant when you realize we only have 22 graduates from the first two classes. In the meantime, some have gone on to college, and many have jobs either as personal care attendants or working in nursing homes. We're especially proud of the ones who are working as EMTs for hospital-based ambulance services like Health East and Allina. So those kids have continued to progress in the ranks and are now talking about paramedic school."

The original plan for Academy graduates was to move some of them into public housing projects, giving them an on-site job as EMTs and an affordable place to live while they finish paramedic training; unfortunately, the plan is hung up in red tape for now.

"We are a step closer with the fire station, though, because it has living quarters for four people," says Page. "Once we establish a BLS service where these kids can get hired, they'll live in the low-income housing and will be able to work at the station. So there's slow progress, but it takes awhile to work through the details."

The EMS Summer Academy will run from now until August, and Inver Hills Community College employees and St. Paul firefighters are serving as instructors and mentors. The Academy recently received a $5,000 grant from Wells Fargo for new equipment and another $5,000 from the Smith Foundation, says Page, so they're funded for the summer and are working on another grant for funding in the fall.