A career in emergency medical services (EMS) is exceptionally rewarding. It can also be extremely challenging! EMS professionals deliver emergency medical care in environments such as residences, scenes of car wrecks, or public places. Certainly much different from doing so in a ‘controlled’ healthcare setting like a hospital.
Performing life-saving care such as CPR, advanced airway procedures, starting IV’s and administering drugs are difficult enough in unpredictable settings, imaging how hard it is to do those maneuvers in the back of an ambulance driving down the road!
Tarrant County College is a premier EMS training facility in north Texas, preparing newly trained EMTs and paramedics for the challenging EMS career. Teaching student the art and science of effectively treating patients in the back of a moving ambulance is an exceptionally important part of the education for EMS professionals.
To assist with that educational experience, MedStar is donating an actual functioning ambulance to TCC’s EMS program. The ambulance has been recently retired from front-line service as part of MedStar’s fleet of 65 ambulances, and is a valuable enhancement for providing TCC’s EMS students with the valuable experience of providing patient care at 60 miles per hour!
“Many graduates of TCC’s EMS training programs find EMS careers with North Texas EMS agencies, including MedStar. We are committed to the success of the program, and its students, and know that donating one of our ambulances to TCC for the students to train in will help prepare them for the challenges they will face with things like starting IV’s while bouncing along on I-35 enroute to a hospital”, says Doug Hooten, MedStar’s CEO.
Bryan Ericson, Program Director for TCC’s Emergency Medical Services Program explains, “This donated ambulance will be invaluable for our education program. It replaces an older ambulance that has recently been retired from service due to age. The MedStar unit has a much more modern configuration, and is in excellent mechanical condition – we hope to use it for many years to come.”
The ambulance will be delivered to TCC in a brief ceremony on Thursday, September 3rd at 12:30pm at TCC’s Northeast Campus, 828 W. Harwood Rd. in Hurst.
The public and media are welcome to attend.
