New EMTs Truly Represent the Community They Serve

It's not every day that a mayor, fire chief and city council member show up for an EMT graduation ceremony, but on December 17, 2009, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Fire Chief Tim Butler, council member Melvin Carter and a host of other dignitaries and proud parents were on hand to congratulate the second graduating class of the St. Paul EMS Academy and pledge their ongoing support for this unique program.

The pilot program, started one year ago, was the brainchild of Chief Butler, says Inver Hills Community College EMS instructor David Page, MS, NREMT-P.

"The goal was to find culturally diverse young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 from low income households and make them eligible to take the test to become firefighters," Page says. "But we also wanted to entice women who were interested in some type of healthcare. By and large, we ended up with a healthy mix of people who may have dreamed of being a paramedic or firefighter and just didn't know how to get there."

This first-in-the-state program is a collaboration among the City of St. Paul, Ramsey County and Inver Hills Community College and extends to young adults workforce development and job skills training opportunities outside the traditional classroom.

The Academy pays participants $7.50 an hour as they go through the 10-week, 20-hours-per-week EMT certification program. Students are required to live in Ramsey County and qualify for low-income status, and are required by Inver Hills, which donates college credits and provides instructors, to take reading and math placement exams. Once a student is selected for the program, there is no slacking off, says Page.

"It's considered a job, so they are expected to show up on time and in uniform," he says. "We don't want to keep people on a payroll who aren't working hard, so if they don't do the quizzes, which are available online, they are dismissed. For both classes, we had a lot of volunteers to help students with reading, problem-solving and other areas, and did half-days of lecture and the second half on skills so they wouldn't get burned out sitting in class all day. We had about 50% attrition both times and ended up graduating 12 in the first class and 11 the second time around. As is often the case in this particular population, when what they see as a better opportunity comes along, they take it. For the most part, the ones who succeeded had good family support and those who didn't were trying to do this on their own. It was a real accomplishment for the ones who graduated."

Tou Vang, NREMT-P, an instructor and recent graduate of the Inver Hills' paramedic degree program, echoes Page's praise for the students.

"At the beginning, all of these kids had high hopes," he says. "They come from less than average homes and have struggled and had major challenges in their everyday lives in terms of family, housing and making a living. As a result of those struggles, many of them come in with an attitude that they'll try it and if they can't make it, they'll quit us before we can quit them, but almost half of each class stuck it through. It's always a battle when they're in a classroom setting and expected to do well, but, when it came time for testing, I felt they were all up to speed. This was a huge accomplishment for these students, and I'm very proud of them."

Supporters of the Academy hope to launch a housing program soon that would move some of the recent graduates into public housing projects while they complete paramedic training, says Page.

"In the Twin Cities, you have to be a paramedic to make a living wage, so they can't just become an EMT and be done. Our grads would be allowed to live at reduced rent or just pay utilities while they get to know the other residents of the buildings, get to know their medical and mental health problems and help with routine things like injury prevention. It's a very innovative approach to reducing call volumes and finding alternate ways of providing healthcare in low income neighborhoods, and it provides these students a way to use their skills right away while they finish their paramedic training. The other advantage is that they can interface with other EMS responders and help translate, which was a big goal of the mayor and fire chief when they put this together. Many residents currently get suboptimal care--not substandard, but definitely suboptimal--because the EMS responders can't communicate with them, so having someone who speaks Hmong or Spanish in St. Paul is a huge asset."

Page is aware that some are skeptical of the program and believes their skepticism is unfounded.

"Jobs weren't just handed to these students," he says. "Some people thought we were giving preferential treatment just because of the color of their skin, and that's inaccurate. Anyone, regardless of color, creed or gender was allowed to apply and was admitted based on income; they had to go through the same hiring process as anyone else. The other thing I think is key here is that EMT skills empower people to do things they never thought they could do. In their minds, achieving the goal of becoming an EMT opens doors for them to attempt other classes or jobs they didn't think were possible."

The program was open to any person aged between 18-24 on a low income regardless of their ethnicity.

For more information on the EMS Academy, go to https://www.ehs.net/emsacademy.