Paramedic Service Short of Minorities

A horrific crash. Two children dead. Two parents who spoke only Spanish.

Jorge Vasquez, a paramedic in training with New Castle County, remembers the April 4 crash because he was the only person in Christiana Hospital's emergency room who spoke Spanish. He was asked to translate the tragic news to the parents.

"It was so hard to do, but I learned how to do it," he said. "I was fortunate to be there and to be able to help. Let me tell you, it changed me a lot."

Vasquez, a native of Colombia, is the only Hispanic paramedic in Delaware's three counties, and one of only nine minority paramedics in the state.

Minorities make up less than 4 percent of all paramedic staffs.

The lack of diversity is a problem that officials in all three counties are struggling with, working to overcome a historically low level of involvement in the field in minority communities and a national shortage of qualified applicants of any race, gender or ethnicity.

New Castle County has five minority paramedics on a staff of 103. County Executive Chris Coons said he's painfully aware of the problem those numbers pose in a county that is 27 percent nonwhite.

"Of all the units of county government, this is the one that stands out the most as not being representative of the community," he said.

Kent County has three minority paramedics on its 35-person staff. In Sussex County, there is only one, a black person, on a staff of 110.

"I would walk on glass to change that," said Glenn Luedtke, director of Sussex County Emergency Medical Services. The nonwhite population is 26.4 percent in Kent County and 19.3 percent in Sussex County.

Leaders from all three counties said they want their paramedic staffs to reflect the racial makeup of the communities they serve. They recognize that paramedics often must help frightened, confused patients who need someone they can relate to. It's particularly important with Delaware's sizable Spanish-speaking population.

"I think it's fundamentally unfair and rotten that not enough minorities are included," said New Castle County Councilman Jea P. Street, of Wilmington. "Secondly, I think medically it's important that there be representation so folks who get sick and need services can look up and have a relationship with the person that's treating them. They should be given the opportunity to have a level of comfort."

A national problem

The problem is not unique to Delaware.

A 2005 survey by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians showed 76 percent of qualified paramedics are white.

Experts attribute the low number of minority paramedics to inadequate recruitment and a decades-old tradition of paramedics coming out of the ranks of volunteer fire and ambulance companies, which have long struggled with a lack of diversity.

"Minorities have not been courted at an early age," said Greg Lord, a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, a professional organization representing EMTs and paramedics, who are trained to administer drugs and deliver life support.

"You don't even get any awareness in the minority community that this is a field they can go into," Lord said.

Vasquez said many of the Hispanic patients he encounters do not understand that his job is to take care of them.

"It's a very young profession, so people don't always understand who you are when you come to the door," he said. "I tell them that I am the bridge between the doctor and their house."

County officials are working to try to improve their recruitment of minorities, said Lawrence Tan, chief of New Castle County's Emergency Medical Services, one of the five minorities on the staff.

"The division absolutely has a goal that we would like to reflect the demographic of the community we serve, but anybody that we are bringing into the service must be able to take care of the patients," Tan said.