Mass. EMS Agency Partners with University for EMT Training Co-Op

At a time when many medical transportation companies are scrambling to hire enough Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to meet service demand, Fallon Ambulance Service and its parent company, Transformative Healthcare, this month are welcoming six new EMTs trained through an innovative new Fallon-Northeastern University partnership. 

The six new EMTs are all students in Northeastern’s Bouve College of Health Sciences who are planning on careers in medicine and medical research. Northeastern is internationally renowned for its “co-operative education,” or co-op, education approach, in which students integrate rigorous classroom study with real-world co-op work experiences that create a powerful way to learn.

Last month, Fallon and Northeastern launched a new co-op program through which the six students have completed 154 hours of classroom and online education to win their Massachusetts and national certifications as EMTs. For their NU co-op term that runs through June, they will work as EMTs for Fallon, alongside Fallon’s industry-leading staff of paramedics and EMTs. Fallon provides medical transportation to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities throughout metropolitan Boston and provides municipal ambulance service to Massachusetts communities home to 300,000 residents.

Transformative Healthcare CEO Sean Tyler said: “We are thrilled to welcome these six dedicated young men and women to our team, and it has been an honor to work closely with Northeastern University in developing and implementing this innovative new approach to recruiting and training emergency medical services professionals. It’s a testimony to the caliber of these students and their instructors–and to the quality of Northeastern’s co-operative education program–that while on average just 66 percent of Massachusetts trainees taking the EMT certification test pass on their first attempt, 100 percent of these Northeastern students successfully won their certification.” 

Deirdre Jordan, Assistant Cooperative Education Coordinator at Northeastern’s Bouve College of Health Sciences, said: “We have loved working with Fallon and Transformative to offer this exciting new opportunity for our College of Health Sciences students, and their co-op work experience exemplifies what Northeastern is all about. Whether they are heading into careers in medicine, healthcare management, or medical research, the real-world experience they will gain from working this winter and spring as EMTs with Fallon and Transformative will give them powerful, lifelong insights into the healthcare delivery system.” 

Commissioned as new EMTs from Northeastern and their respective hometowns are: Dipak Aggarwal of South Jamaica, N.Y.; Tyler Brown of Greenville, S.C.; Ava Grounds of Davidsonville, Md.; Michelle Heeyang of Boston; Keegan O’Hara of South Hero, Vt.; and Jasmin Jalali-Yazdi of Paris, France. Through the Fallon/NU training, the six students are now also eligible to work as EMTs in 46 other states that recognize the national EMT certification. 

In addition to classroom and practical training, Transformative and Fallon are also teaming up to provide the Northeastern students with a 14-week “EMS Leadership Workshop.” Industry leaders will meet with students for four hours per week to teach them about topics including organizational behavior and leadership in EMS, healthcare finance and reimbursement, simulation in EMS education, Mobile Integrated Health, healthcare communications, clinical pathways for the EMS provider, emergency management and preparedness, and tactical EMS. 

Danielle Rabickow, Director of Transformative Healthcare’s Clinical Center of Excellence, said: "Creating leaders of tomorrow within the healthcare industry is our responsibility. Cultivating an environment that builds our bench strength is critical to bringing up the healthcare innovators of tomorrow."