BENTONVILLE, Ark.— A mock-up of an ambulance filled one corner of the classroom and simulated hospital rooms took up the opposite wall, but Grant Wilson’s students one recent morning were focused on the 3-inch-thick books in front of them simply labeled “Paramedic Textbook.”
That day’s chapter was on toxicology, dealing with every variety of poison or toxin that could be in someone who called for an ambulance. It covered how to clean out a stomach — “like flushing a transmission,” someone joked — and how to deal with a chemical found in badly made moonshine, which got more chuckles from the group.
“This is the time of year, weather’s cooling off, CO (carbon monoxide) and cyanide are going to hit big time,” Wilson said, referring to potentially deadly compounds released into the air by many indoor fires.
His students were emergency medical technicians, most of whom work for area fire departments, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They’re working to make the jump to fully fledged paramedics, who can provide more extensive and complex medical care than EMTs to an ambulance patient on the way to the hospital. Several said they relished the chance to be able to offer more help at what can be someone’s most dire moments.
“As an EMT, you’re set in a rhythm,” giving the same basic first aid in most calls, said Joey Spivey, who works for Bentonville Fire. “As a medic, it’s on my shoulders.”
Fire and ambulance services across Northwest Arkansas say they desperately need people such as Spivey because there are barely enough paramedics to go around. No health official could give a firm number for the region’s paramedic needs, but hints pop up throughout Benton and Washington counties.
Wilson’s yearlong course at Northwest Arkansas Community College could hold 26 students, but has 18. Central EMS, covering all of Washington County except Springdale, has had an open paramedic position for weeks. Departments complain of dipping into overtime to cover similar gaps and to make sure all ambulances have a paramedic on board.
The situation is so urgent many departments nonetheless cover the cost of training their EMTs into paramedics — often between $7,000 and $8,000 at NWACC — while also continuing to pay EMTs’ salaries while they’re taking the course and paying other EMTs to fill in for them in the meantime.
“The last few (paramedics) we’ve hired have either been from Missouri or Oklahoma,” said Chief Stephen Sims of the Bella Vista Fire Department, which, like most ambulance services in the area, employs people trained as both firefighters and EMTs or paramedics. “I mean, there’s just nobody out there to hire.”
