Griffin Paterson, Reporter
@GPCourant
While most NCHS students relaxed aound their pools and enjoyed every day they did not have to go to school last summer, senior Justine Jorgensen and junior Taylor Cowser dedicated themselves to a whole different kind of education: training to be volunteer EMTs.
Justine and Taylor are enrolled in the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps, with approximately 55 active riding members who are EMTs certified by the state of Connecticut, according to their website. Each active member rides a minimum of one 12-hour shift each week and attends monthly medical education sessions.
According to Justine and Taylor, the application process was rigorous, and took the more than the whole summer to complete. “First you have to sign up for your class; we did that over the summer at Stamford Hospital but now they’ve moved to a new location since then,” Taylor said. “At first we went to Stamford Hospital three nights a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 6:30-11:30 pm. Saturdays we had labs, 8 am – 5 pm. On top of that we had to do at least 12 hours of ER shifts. We worked some night shifts and went to class on Friday at 11pm and would work straight through until 7 am.”
This process not only required a lot of their time, but was also physically draining. “We were a little sleep deprived,” Taylor said. “There was a lot of studying because there were a lot of quizzes and tests everyday. You can only fail one of two tests before you get kicked out of the class and waste $1,000.”
Despite completing all of the hands on training, there was still a lot more to do to become certified. “At the end of the summer, you take your finals. The first one is a practical. Then there’s a written final the next day,” Taylor said. “If you pass both of those, you graduate the class, but that doesn’t really mean anything; all it does is allow you to go on and take your state exam. So, you have to go through your entire practical exam again for the state. If you pass all of it, you submit to an ambulance corps like in New Canaan.”
Now certified, Taylor and Justine will have to work 60 hours a month. They can work 6 am – 6 pm or 6 pm – 6 am, having to work at least one day every week. As students, they have to take the night shift, 6 am to 6 pm. “Sometimes you only get 2-3 calls a night, if any, so you can sleep, because they have beds, and you can do your homework,” Justine said.
Although it seems like a lot of work just to become an unpaid volunteer, there are multiple reasons why they wanted to get certified. “I hurt my knee pretty badly in middle school and since then have had a bunch of surgeries, and so I got interested in medicine through that,” Justine said. “Then I decided I wanted to go to medical school after college to become a pediatric surgeon, and becoming an EMT was the first step I could take in the medical field before college to get hands-on experience with patients.”
For Taylor, her interest started in the family. “My dad was the captain of New Canaan Ambulance, and he’s been doing that since I was twelve or thirteen years old. For a long time, I’ve been interested from watching him,” Taylor said. “I want to go into medicine when I’m older so I thought this was a really good first step.”
After all of the testing and certification, the job itself also has its difficulties. “Aside from testing, I think the most difficult part is following up on your commitments and making sure you actually get your state and national certification,” Justine said. “There were a lot of kids in our class last summer who still haven’t taken any of their state testing.”
Taylor also finds it challenging to actively keep up in the program. “Keeping up on everything is a lot. And once you’re certified, some of the patients can be very difficult, people who you just don’t want to have to deal with,” Taylor said.
Despite the hardships, they encourage others to become interested in getting certified for multiple reasons. “Anyone interested in doing medicine, any aspect, because at one point or another you are going to have to learn this stuff,” Taylor said. “Getting your certification at say 16 gets you experience that you can’t usually get until you’re in medical school.”
Justine likes the hands on training and preparedness for real world situations. “I feel totally comfortable that, if a situation arose, I’d be totally comfortable handling it,” Justine said. “A lot of people take CPR classes and things like that, but I don’t think they’d be actually comfortable to step in and actually do that.”
Taylor also likes the real world aspect and the ability to work with patients. “Yeah it was the first step and one of the only things we can do at our age to prove our interest,” Taylor said. “I like to know what’s going on when I watch Grey’s Anatomy and knowing what they’re doing and being able to correct them on what they’re doing wrong, because that happens a lot. Also, it’s fun working with the patients, being in the ER you meet a lot of people and you hear a lot of stories. You can also help them and that’s pretty cool.”
