Bertha EMT open house draws some, not enough
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Bertha Ambulance held its open house on Wednesday, January 5, in hopes of recruiting new people to become EMTs.
Ambulance Director Russ VanDenheuvel, Medical Director Dr. Pate, along with several other EMTs were available to answer questions and share their experiences.
The goal is to have at least eight people sign up to hold a class in Bertha. EMT Jeremy Wolfenbarger, with Tri-County Health Care, will be teaching the class and will work with those that sign up as to what weeknights work best to meet for a 10 week period. There is also the option of a six-hour class on a weekend. Training is a total of 140 hours. Trainees will also have to do ride-alongs 10 times.
Refresher classes are due every two years that they will also provide.
The plan is to still have some EMRs but that would be a separate class from the EMTs. They will recruit EMRs at a later date.
It is ideal to have two EMTs and one EMR per shift. The more EMTs there are, the less a crew has to be on call. . .