money Want to be an EMT? How to earn while you learn in Central Pa. to start a medical career
When Michelle Fellner was first pitched the idea of becoming an emergency medical technician, it sounded like a great idea to her: Exciting, fast-paced job, interacting with people and learning a lot while at work.
She began taking classes to get her certification and then realized she was pregnant.
Seeing how much time and money she would have to commit to the course to gain what essentially is an entry-level job in the medical field, she dropped the class.
For the next 13 years, Fellner became a baker, worked in management, and after getting laid off during the pandemic, found herself at a crossroads of what to do with her life.
She began working in a warehouse, and during that time, scrolling on Facebook, she found another EMS opportunity with UPMC’s Life Team that wouldn’t require her to pay for and attend a course.
Within 10 weeks, she revived her deferred dream of becoming an EMT and made it a reality.
EMS Academy
UPMC and other local hospitals have been running EMS academies to address the crippling EMT shortage in the nation
According to American Ambulance Association President Shawn Baird, EMS labor shortages have severely stunted local crews ability to care for residents.
According to Hanover Area Fire Rescue EMS Captain Claudia Christensen, when the pandemic first hit the calls for emergency services went down. But over the course of 2021, they have now reached a new high.
People with medical conditions have been delaying visits to the hospital during the pandemic, creating emergency situations when they cannot receive medical care in time.
The pandemic has exacerbated the problems, but Christensen said these shortages are not new.
“There have been shortages since 2005,” Christensen said. “The problem that we're having now is that because of COVID, you can really see it. So, we've always had understaffing or under certified.”
Additionally, the pay is unattractive, forcing many EMTs to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. So if one worker is put out of commission, multiple stations lose a qualified worker.
The situation has become so dire in central Pennsylvania that many EMS companies are requesting mutual aid from other local dispatchers, sometimes sending ambulances hours away for calls local outlets cannot get to.
“We've burnt brain cells trying to figure out why people don't want to come work for us, or work for anyone in EMS, and it's a combination of that Medusa's head of wages, of responsibility and the unsureness of viral particles floating about your body,” Lancaster EMS Director of Education Rick Pearson said.
More: WellSpan delays non-urgent care as COVID spike slams Pennsylvania over holiday weekend
To become a state certified EMT, a candidate must complete the EMT National Registry exam, a rigorous test that ensures candidates are field ready, as well as a state exam. The candidates need to complete a training course to be brought on board, but many cannot make the time
Enter: EMS Academy.
Like fire and police academies, central Pa. hospitals have rolled out a program to train aspiring EMTs in 10 weeks while paying them full-time.
“A lot of people can't take care of family and go to night school and switch careers, and this lets those folks jump,” UPMC Medical Director of EMS Dan Bledsoe said.
One such person is Sean Kirwin, who had been volunteering for fire stations since he was 14 years old.
Now 28, Kirwin had done many trainings that would be required for an EMT, but without the free time from his job at the Adams County Adult Correctional Complex, he would not be able to make the change.
Kirwin found the EMS Academy through a Facebook ad and was able to transition into a completely new career.
“I love my job; I love my schedule. I actually have two jobs at EMS now. I work for Life Team and I also work for Pleasant Hill Volunteer Fire Company,” Kirwin said. “I still have more free time than when I worked at the Adams County prison."
Kirwin felt he was at an advantage with the trainings, being able to draw on previous trainings from his work in the prison and as a firefighter.
More: Expect to wait longer for an ambulance as EMS staff shortage grows in Pennsylvania
More: Central Pa. emergency rooms ranked, fastest to slowest. One ER averages almost 5 hours
For Fellner, it was different.
“I knew from going to the class for a little bit how much time it entailed and the fact they were doing it in 10 weeks like blew my mind,” Fellner said. “It made sense that if they were having us there eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, you know, that it was going to be really intense.”
The training provides candidates with their Emergency Vehicle Driver Operator Training, Hazardous Material Awareness Training and everything needed to start in the field as a career EMT.
Fellner and Kirwin were part UPMC’s first Life Team class. Fellner described her training as overwhelming at first.
"We always said it felt like a firehose of information coming at us because it was like we were covering probably like eight chapters a week and we'd have tests on each chapter and it was just insanely overwhelming at the beginning,” Fellner said. “It was just like college, get together to study before the exams and everything.”
But as the course progressed and the class began to apply their new knowledge in practical ways, things became clearer.
Fellner said some of the highlights of the training were the real-life scenarios the instructors put them through.
One day, they took the team to a junkyard where they simulated a car rescue on wrecks.
Another, near the end of the course, is the Stress Induced Competency Assessment, commonly referred to as “Hell Day.”
Candidates go through a variety of emergency situations with actors, usually other EMTs or family members familiar with the scenarios, playing residents in crisis.
Throughout the day the teams are answering calls and putting everything they learned in the class to use.
“You're just going call, to call, to call all day. And they're mock calls, so you're able to make it as real as it can be in a make-believe scenario, and it's legit,” Kirwin said.
Then comes the exam.
“I'm gonna be honest, I walked out of that test and I went, 'Yup I failed that,’” Kirwin said. “It's not an easy test.”
But Kirwin passed, and all but one of the class proceeded to become fully certified.
Fellner, who had received her GED and never completed college, relished being able to say this is the first thing she has graduated from.
She said there was a graduation ceremony at UPMC Memorial where all the instructors handed out diplomas.
After that, the students were released as fully certified EMTs.
The real world
Fellner did not have an easy first call. She was brought out when a call came in for a 14- year-old girl who could not get hold of a medication she needed and had stopped breathing. When she arrived, she surprised herself with how prepared she felt.
"I knew what to do, which was really incredible in my first call as an EMT, I knew what to hand my paramedic, I knew to stay calm. And the parents were like flipping out, and I knew how to calmly but firmly ask them to go into the other room, you know just for a couple of minutes.”
She felt the panic, too, thinking of her 13-year-old son, but managed to stay calm and professional.
“My training was a big, huge part of that because they hammer into you it's not always going to be older people, it's going to be kids. It's gonna be babies. They don't sugarcoat it, which is really important in this line of work.”
That was when she knew she was in the right place and she had found a good career fit for her 13 years after her first shot.
“It feels like home. I beat myself up of 'Why didn't you finish it?' but it wasn't the right time. It would not have been the right time and the right attitude,” Fellner said. “One door shuts and look at the new one that opened."
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: UPMC EMS academies training EMT while paying full time medical career
