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Collegiate EMS


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I'm impressed. I wish we could go ALS but unfortunately my school only has four year degrees and we can't keep people long enough to get them through basic and an ALS program.

There it is. You just nailed the very crux of the problem. You are attempting to run a service staffed almost entirely by people who have only a minor, passing interest in EMS. Their priorities are elsewhere. This is nothing but a hobby for them. Making a professional organisation out of that is impossible. You never will be anything more.

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We work very closely with our medical director and medical advisor to advance our capabilities for patient assessment. We are frequently the testing ground for medical studies, such as our most recent trial implementation of the Zoll AutoPulse.

This is more or less what I was trying to explain of my organization, so I have to say... very cool - sounds like a great program to be a part of! Do you guys run a 1 and 1 rig? (1 medic, 1 EMT)

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I'm impressed. I wish we could go ALS but unfortunately my school only has four year degrees and we can't keep people long enough to get them through basic and an ALS program.

There it is. You just nailed the very crux of the problem. You are attempting to run a service staffed almost entirely by people who have only a minor, passing interest in EMS. Their priorities are elsewhere. This is nothing but a hobby for them. Making a professional organisation out of that is impossible. You never will be anything more.

In the past 5 years we have had only a few people who did not continue in emergency services. Would you discount people who went into Law Enforcement or Emergency Management but stayed current in EMS? What about people who took other paths but continued to volunteer as EMS providers? The problem isn't the commitment to the corp it is simply the fact that our school can only keep people for 4 years really.

One can have a service of people who act professionally without having a paid career service.

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Would you discount people who went into Law Enforcement or Emergency Management but stayed current in EMS?

Yes.

What about people who took other paths but continued to volunteer as EMS providers?

Yes, them too. Especially them. That is the epitome of unprofessionalism.

One can have a service of people who act professionally without having a paid career service.

Sure. But acting like a medical professional and actually being one are two entirely different things. Being a professional means you don't have to put on an act.

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Again I stand by the comment that got me promoted to such a wonderful title that the problem here is you are volunteer. You may not think it hurts the profession but many paid services in those areas are able to keep pay low because of whackers. I applaud the move for education but you should make campus EMS a paid job in order to help the profession you claim to love.

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How does one transition a volunteer service to a paid service then?

Quit.

It may not transform your service into a paid agency. But that's not important. Whoever takes it over will be paid.

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And as EMS providers, we all have things that are potentially harmful to patients. Our age doesn't make us more prone to misusing things so no, I don't think its "the truth of the matter". Hasn't happened yet in over 30 years - no reason to think it will now.
I would disagree with the statement that age doesn't make one more prone to misusing things in an EMS service. Perhaps you particular service has ways to prevent it from happening, but as a general rule, late teens and early twenties (college years) does make people (young population as a whole) more likely to misuse. Not saying it's a good enough reason/risk to not have the program...just picking at the logic.
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I work for an entirely student run collegiate ambulance service, and although we are volunteer I more consider it an unpaid internship. We staff our trucks 24 hours a day 365 days a year. In addition to campus, we are primary 911 for 4 surrounding towns, including 12 miles of highway. All this adds up to between 2700 and 2900 calls a year, making us the second busiest ambulance service in the state. We are an ALS staffed and stocked unit 100% of the time. In addition, every member is pursuing higher education. My curriculum, heavily weighted in biology/chemistry classes, helps me better understand the pathophysiology of disease, illness and interventions, along with fostering the development of my critical thinking skills (unfortunately many of the surrounding Fire based EMS services do not hold these things in high enough esteem to mandate them). A student must run with our department for 2 years and show aptitude before being allowed to Crew Chief calls (direct medical care). We work very closely with our medical director and medical advisor to advance our capabilities for patient assessment. We are frequently the testing ground for medical studies, such as our most recent trial implementation of the Zoll AutoPulse. Subtracting as much bias as possible, I believe we are one of the best educated and most comprehensively trained services around, collegiate or not.
Reminds me of UCLA's BLS ambulance service. I haven't confirmed it, but was told 100% of their EMTs go on to medical school. It's an extremely competitive program with few spots open. These aren't kids who are doing it just for kicks, but rather people who plan to devote their lives to medicine. The criticism is still that they are not ALS, but being such a small program they can have a lot of oversight and can probably have every single PCR and ALS request (or lack of it) reviewed for QI.
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