Expanding Your EMS Horizons

On a college squad, you've either worked as a quick response service, or perhaps as a transporting service. Maybe you also have worked with a local fire department or a commercial ambulance company back home or as an internship. These are all great ways to use your EMS training and learn and meet people.

But there are more places to turn that offer different types of EMS experiences and training, along with providing great networking opportunities. In this post, I'll focus on disaster medicine. Disasters call for large numbers of EMS resources, but also additional training and often using a different model of care.

There are many organizations that you can volunteer with (and/or work for) that provide disaster medical services. I won't try to list them all, but lets focus on the two that I work with (feel free to add more in the comments).

The Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) has teams in most states which are funded by grants from Homeland Security (via FEMA). These teams are staffed by volunteers and are usually under the control of the state's emergency management office (or similar entity). They respond to mass casualty incidents mostly within their state. FEMA describes the goals as such (you can read a detailed document also):

The MMRS program supports the integration of emergency management, health, and medical systems into a coordinated response to mass casualty incidents caused by any hazard. Successful MMRS grantees reduce the consequences of a mass casualty incident during the initial period of a response by having augmented existing local operational response systems before the incident occurs. (FEMA HSGP)

I have found my MMRS team to be a dynamic group of people (EMTs, nurses, doctors, non-medical administrators, communications experts, etc) that has provided great networking. Furthermore, each MMRS team has trainings that you otherwise don't have access to (at least easily or for free). Plus, the best part is that you are contributing your assistance in a meaningful way when an emergency occurs.

The second organization is similar to MMRS, although with a different focus, and on a larger scale. The National Disaster Medical System has a variety of teams, such as the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT). These teams are located nationwide and take turns being on call for a month per year to deploy to locations nationwide or internationally for two week deployments in support of medical operations. DMAT members are federal employees under the US Dept of Health and Human Services, so the approval and training takes a while and the teams require significant commitment. If you deploy, your regular job is protected and you are paid for deployment time. Most importantly, you are working with an extremely talented team of professionals responding to some of the worst natural disasters, etc.

The National Response Framework utilizes the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), as part of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Preparedness and Response, under Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF #8), Health and Medical Services, to support Federal agencies in the management and coordination of the Federal medical response to major emergencies and federally declared disasters including:
* Natural Disasters
* Major Transportation Accidents
* Technological Disasters
* Acts of Terrorism including Weapons of Mass Destruction Events
(NDMS)

College (EMS) Confidential

I was part of the team that designed and implemented the on-call EMS response program for my school, and one concern the administration voiced surprisingly frequently was that of privacy.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) forbids, among other things, the unauthorized release of patients' protected health information. HIPAA applies to all on-duty EMS personnel, regardless of their age or unit affiliation. Many college administrators are not familiar with HIPAA--or at least with its application in the EMS setting--so their confusion is understandable.

The college EMS agency has the responsibility to educate the administration and assuage their privacy concerns. Seeing as college campuses are essentially small cities where word travels quickly, the consequences of a privacy violation could be devastating. The administration, and the student body, needs to know that confidential health information will be kept confidential.

For this reason, it's a good idea to conduct an annual or even semi-annual HIPAA training with your members. You may even wish to open the session to the campus community, so they can see what the EMS privacy guidelines are. (And it goes without saying that PCRs and other sensitive records should be kept securely.) Patient privacy is a priority for us, and the better the students and administration understand that, the easier it will be to earn their trust and confidence.

EMS: College to Career

I arrived at college as a brand-new EMT-B. Throughout my undergraduate years I was active with the campus EMS squad during the term and with my hometown 911 transport agency during school breaks. Following my graduation, I worked for a private ambulance company for the summer and then moved to Buffalo for paramedic school. A year later, I have begun working as a paramedic. The lifeblood of my fledgling career may have been my time with urban and commercial services, but its backbone was definitely my four years of college EMS. That time was a jumping-off point that has greatly aided my transition to "real" EMS jobs.

For starters, experience is king. There is obviously a minimum level of training required to function in any EMS capacity, but beyond meeting "cognitive" and "psychomotor" certification standards, one of the chief distinguishing features between adequate, good and great EMS personnel is the experience they bring to the table. Collegiate EMS offers its members the opportunity to take calls, treat patients and practice skills. Any experience is good and more the better. Plus, college squads are often less complicated to join than private or municipal agencies.

Secondly, I learned a great deal about "behind-the-scenes" EMS while at college. In two years as Equipment Officer and two years as Operations Officer, I was closely involved with inventory, purchasing, communications, scheduling, training, personnel and inter-agency relations. This provided me with a more encompassing view of the industry that didn't end at the ambulance doors. College EMS is unique in that members can execute a wide variety of offices and responsibilities and do so much more quickly than could be expected in the commercial world. Any college student considering becoming an EMS professional would be well advised to seek office with his campus squad at some point during his (or her) time there.

Lastly, EMS isn't for everyone. Some people are born to do this job; most of us have to work at it. But there are also some people who are destined for greatness in other areas. If you are interested in EMS--in whatever capacity--the only way to know into which category you fall is to try the work. College EMS is the perfect way to do just that.