Want to be an EMT? Online courses an option through Sanford Health
Jul. 14—SIOUX FALLS — You can do a lot through online teleconferencing.
In just the past decade, the technology has been used by businesses to host staff meetings. Students have used it to attend classes during snow days or during the COVID-19 pandemic. And families to visit with relatives thousands of miles away without leaving the comfort of their homes.
A program through Sanford Health is also using it to host classes for budding emergency medical technicians, the numbers of
which have dwindled over the years due to a declining rural population and training obstacles such as travel time and cost for those interested.
"About eight years ago we transitioned to an online model just because we can hit a larger geographical area. You can do it from the convenience of your home through a live televised presentation," said Travis Spier, enterprise director for Simulation and Pre-Hospital Care at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls.
The need for new EMTs has been a problem in South Dakota, and across the nation, for years, Spier said. The need for them is particularly strong in rural communities with small, aging populations where emergency service providers operate on a volunteer basis. These departments are often understaffed, with a handful of EMTs handling emergency calls throughout the year. And recruiting new volunteers can be difficult, given the time, travel and cost involved with training.
Sanford Health has offered emergency medical services classes and training for years, but prior to a switch to focus on online training to expand the program reach and convenience for both teachers and students, the program was administered by Sanford staffers spreading out across the state to teach classes where they were needed. That became cumbersome, and new ways to reach students were explored.
When federal funding that supported the initial program dried up, Sanford took over the program and began the transition to online learning. Spier said that prior to the switch, he had a team of about 65 instructors driving around the state to teach EMT classes in communities where it was needed. They covered about 9,000 miles per month on the road. It was inconvenient and clearly could be more efficient.
The idea of moving to online classes made sense, as the technology had improved greatly over the last 10 years and more and more people had access to the equipment and technology to make their home office their classroom. But it was still a change, and it took some convincing to move from the in-person class model to an online one.
"There was a lot of opposition in the early days of the proposal. But I said if we can teach high school kids online and teach college kids online, why can't we teach EMT students online?" Spier said.
It turns out they could, and since the implementation of the online version of the training, Sanford Health has pushed hundreds of new EMTs out into the service field, and are expecting to welcome more to the program this fall. The next round of online classes is expected to begin in August and run into December, and another round is planned for January through May of 2024.
The live online classes are held Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 10 p.m., along with once-a-month live hands-on training labs held on Saturdays at Sioux Falls and other selected locations in South Dakota based on the location of people taking the courses.
Students who sign up for the course and successfully complete it will be certified in basic life support CPR and be prepared to complete the National Registry Cognitive Exam to earn their EMT registration and certification.
And thanks to a grant from the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
and a
H1B grant through the U.S. Department of Labor,
some students could qualify to take the class for free, allowing them to forgo the $850 class fee they would otherwise have to pay. The grants cover tuition, textbooks, CPR certification, skills lab and even provides food for live lab days.
It's all a way to bring the classes into the 21st century while maintaining a high-level of training education to interested candidates. It helps take the training out of volunteer hands and puts it in the hands of experienced educators who know the material inside and out and have experience in imparting their knowledge to others.
Over the years, EMT courses have been occasionally taught by the most experienced EMT in a volunteer department, even though they had no formal background in teaching or education. They had simply completed their own training and would do their best to get their students ready to attempt their own certification tests.
"In rural communities, a lot of services have done their own courses. They would just do it themselves. A community may have six people on their EMT roster, and they identify the need for more EMTs because that's not enough to cover an entire month of shifts," Spier said. "So someone ends up getting selected to teach a class."
Understandably, the success rate of those programs wasn't always great.
"The pass rate on the EMT classes traditionally with that type of format is sitting in the 50% range. The other thing we've seen in homegrown classes is that you might start with five students but end up with two because of the attrition rate. It might be too hard, or something may come up. It's a huge burden to teach that course," Spier said.
The online program through Sanford Health instead offers students the chance to learn from highly-trained instructors who are experts in their field. And now, instead of sending those instructors out on the road, they arrive in the homes of their students via the internet. Most of the instructors are currently active and working in the field, so their experience is up-to-date, Spier said.
And interest in the program, and other EMT and EMS offerings from Sanford that are aimed at high school and technical college students, is growing. It's even garnering interest from beyond South Dakota, thanks to the online option and a relatively cheaper course cost.
"I would say we've doubled our numbers. And we get a lot of people from out-of-state as well from bordering states. I had a student in Denver that took the course, and she wasn't grant-qualified (to take the course for free), but it was $3,000 to take it out there versus $850 here. And she can do it from home," Spier said.
The Freeman Volunteer Fire Department, which operates the local ambulance service, is one service that is benefiting from the online courses, and specifically the grant program that waives the registration fee. The department ran four new recruits through the program and are in the process of gaining their certification. All four qualified to take the course for free.
Matt Rigo, ambulance captain for the department, said the service has about a dozen EMTs on staff — better than some departments of its size — but recruiting new members is difficult.
"It's difficult to recruit new ones. The ones we have are very dedicated and help out a lot, and we have a call schedule with people taking turns which spreads out the call volume," Rigo said. "We had four people take the spring session that they offered, so we're hoping to gain some people from that."
The chance for new EMTs to learn from home has its appeal, he said. And the more volunteers on staff, the more chance there is for those involved to be able to step back, spend time with family and avoid the burnout that can come with being overworked.
Making training easier also helps with that, he said.
"Everybody's life is busy, and if you can learn from home, it certainly helps, especially if you can cut out that commute," Rigo said. "We're always looking for more help just to ease some of the burden. Even with a strong roster sometimes it's difficult with community events going on. People just enjoy their time off, and to be able to go to an event knowing that you're not going to get called away, it helps."
Dan Pollreisz, chief of the Mitchell Fire Division and Emergency Management Services, a full-time professional service, noted that all staffers with the division are required to be EMTs, and they also carry paramedics on staff with the ambulance service. They utilize programs like the one at Sanford Health to keep up on their continuing education and recertification.
"It's so important. You have to be at least an EMT or paramedic," Pollreisz said. "In order to work for us you already have to have your EMT certification, and you have to re-certify every two years. You have to have a certain number of hours, and sometimes those hours come from online hours."
Full-time departments like the one in Mitchell, the service area of which covers all of Davison County and a large portion of Hanson County, attract more career-focused professionals than volunteer departments, he said. But having grown up in Ethan and volunteered with the local volunteer department there, as well as working cooperatively with rural departments during his time with the Mitchell Fire Division, he knows the challenges that come with EMT staffing.
The problem goes beyond just rural areas, he said, but online programs can help address that.
"It is extremely difficult for a volunteer service to get volunteers. Everybody is just so busy with their lives, but it's not just a volunteer problem, it's the fire service in general. It's a problem throughout the nation, whether volunteer or career," Pollreisz said. "If you had to go to class twice a week and every other weekend, they would need to have their employer let them off work and make a two-hour drive to class. It will absolutely help, I don't see how it wouldn't."
The Mitchell departments work closely with many volunteer services in the area, and he knows the importance they hold in their local communities. Mitchell fire and ambulance, with their team of paramedics, often assist smaller departments with higher-level medical emergencies or on mutual aid calls, but those local departments are crucial to ensuring the safety of local citizens.
With EMT shortages in those areas, service could be compromised, which is something nobody wants.
"We don't want to go into somebody's ambulance service area because they don't have the volunteers. Same on the fire side. We'll do it, obviously, but can you imagine a loved one needing an ambulance and having to sit there for 30 or 40 minutes for another service because you don't have a volunteer?" Pollreisz said.
Spier said the Sanford Health online program will continue to work to address those needs. The added flexibility and accessibility offered through online learning will hopefully continue to help fill those staffing gaps.
"Anyone who is interested and qualified should at least look into it. It is a huge time commitment, eight hours a week of classes plus studying on your own plus your Monday to Friday job plus family and kids stuff, it's a huge commitment, but the reward is golden. All the hard work pays off," Spier said.
More information on Sanford Health's EMT and other EMS courses can be found at
by emailing
emsservices@sandfordhealth.org
or calling 605-328-6389.
