Collegiate EMS

rwik123

rwik123

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Hey guys!

I wanted to start this thread to see if anyone on the board is currently or was previously involved in collegiate EMS. I am.

If you want to mention your program, how it's run (training program, ranks, rigs), and your opinion of it! How's your relationship with surrounding agencies and the student body? From the sound of it, each college is different and I'm interested on seeing how it is somewhere else.
 
At the college where I'm at (I'm taking an EMT-B course this semester), seems like most of their calls are intox related — whether intox straight up (i.e. unconscious, unresponsive), or trauma secondary to intoxication (if that phrasing makes any sense).

It's a BLS non-transport service (again, I think this phrasing makes sense, but may not be legally accurate), most are EMT-Bs with a few people just with CPR certs, non-transport. There's a two-semester EMT-B class, I believe.
 
I'll post a little about mine! Its a large public school in new england. We are staffed 365 days a year and operate at the ALS level. We have two trucks but usually only keep one in service. Our primary service area is the campus itself, but we respond secondary to around 4 surrounding towns and cities, and tertiary to a handfull more towns. Our transport time is fairly short to a local level one trauma center. Call volume is around 1400 a year. Also we are the primary provider for air ambulance transports from the offsite pad to the hospital. Relations with other agencies and ffs is mostly good. I'd like to think we are respected as medical professionals even though we are all student run.
 
That's pretty cool that you guys can operate at ALS level. I can't imagine mine doing anything at that level:censored:— though it'd probably be useful, considering how bad the response time is for local ALS providers (I called them for an intox unconscious, unresponsive, <12 breaths per minute patient, and it took 15 min for anybody, BLS or ALS, to show!).
 
It all depends on your age. When I was on an EMS squad in Maryland, the students worked very well with our members; most of our members were college-aged so we could easily relate.
 
I understand Rice university has a pretty decent campus EMS. They function more at the first responder level though and don't transport. I've worked with a few of their students though and they seem pretty solid.

Regarding intox related calls Rice has an interesting policy that basically gives amnesty (within reason) to anyone who calls EMS for alcohol related reasons. Not sure if that's common with these types of programs but it should be. No telling how many kids have died because their frat brothers were too worried about getting in trouble to call for help.
 
bigbaldguy said:
I understand Rice university has a pretty decent campus EMS. They function more at the first responder level though and don't transport. I've worked with a few of their students though and they seem pretty solid.

Regarding intox related calls Rice has an interesting policy that basically gives amnesty (within reason) to anyone who calls EMS for alcohol related reasons. Not sure if that's common with these types of programs but it should be. No telling how many kids have died because their frat brothers were too worried about getting in trouble to call for help.
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we have a similar policy to this. ours is to lessen the fear of students with the intoxicated person calling 911 or amnesty. Its basically that the kids with the patient dont get in trouble for being associated with it in a hope that it will be called more..saving lives
 
rwik123 said:
we have a similar policy to this. ours is to lessen the fear of students with the intoxicated person calling 911 or amnesty. Its basically that the kids with the patient dont get in trouble for being associated with it in a hope that it will be called more..saving lives
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Yeah it's really a no brainer idea when you think about it. While I was in college (many years ago for the 2 semesters before I got kicked out) we had a kid die because no one would call 911. After more than an hour someone finally called a parent who eventually got in touch with EMS.
 
rwik123 said:
we have a similar policy to this. ours is to lessen the fear of students with the intoxicated person calling 911 or amnesty. Its basically that the kids with the patient dont get in trouble for being associated with it in a hope that it will be called more..saving lives
Click to expand...

I think it's a fairly common policy. Makes good sense. Be better off, though, just to fix the systemic problem, which is caused by the Uniform Drinking Age Act.
 
My collegiate EMS service was a great group. We were a state certified QRS, with everyone certified at the EMT-B level. We only did about 300 calls a year, and only about 10-15% of those were alcohol related.

Towards the end of my junior year the school decided that they did not want to call Campus EMS if they would also be calling the city agency that was our first due. So we saw our call volume plummet (about 75 calls my senior year).

Unfortunately this led to a loss of members and I felt those who were active did not gain enough experience to be promoted to a Crew Chief. As of when I left our organization did not make a transition to a educational as well as EMS organization. There was talk of holding CPR and First Aid classes as well as doing BP screenings but that never took off
 
My school's EMS was just formed last semester and we are still working a lot of kinks out. We currently only do event standby and the local BLS does all transports. Most of what we do is hand out band aids. We have a couple EMT-Bs and FA/CPR trained individuals working alongside the EMTs. The relationship with local 911 BLS is good, mainly because a few of us work for both.
 
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