Guilford County gets creative to train, hire EMTs

Cinde Ingram, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·3 min read

Jan. 26—GUILFORD COUNTY — Guilford County EMS is hiring people who want to become emergency medical technicians and will provide them with paid, on-the-job training.

As members of the inaugural EMT Launchpad, these new employees will be in full-time jobs with benefits and a starting salary of $31,200 while they train for and acquire their EMT certification.

All previous Guilford County EMS hiring processes have only been open to providers with a current EMT or Paramedic certification, but applicants to the Emergency Medical Technician Academy do not need to have prior emergency medical training or even a background in health care.

Guilford County Emergency Services Deputy Director Kyle Paschal said the academy is an effort to keep EMS staffing up to pace with the county's growth.

"This is the right time to take dedicated individuals and train them from the ground up. They will become the next EMTs and paramedics to serve our citizens. The need for emergency medical providers is ever-present and more important now than ever," he said.

Earlier this month, Guilford County Emergency Services received three supplemental ambulance crews from the state to provide temporary help with the increased number of 911 calls because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The crews were assigned to Guilford County for two weeks, said Scott Muthersbaugh, deputy public information officer for Guilford County emergency services.

"We were using the additional state response as a stopgap, and we knew we were not going to keep them forever," Muthersbaugh said. "So we wanted to come up with some creative options for filling that employment long-term while we had the short-term help through the state. We really pushed to be more creative about how we're hiring and getting people to stay long-term."

Throughout the four-month program, EMT Launchpad students will have 28 hours each week of class taught by GCEMS training staff. They will also gain clinical experience by running real-world EMS calls on a GCEMS ambulance while paired with a paramedic crew. In addition to employee pay and benefits, all tuition, certification costs, fees, uniforms, equipment and course materials will be furnished by GCEMS.

Graduates of the EMT Launchpad will then partner with current Guilford County EMS providers and work on ambulances deployed throughout the county.

Guilford County EMS is the only county-based EMS system in the state to begin a program to train new EMTs while offering full-time employment, according to the N.C. Office of EMS. Nash and Gaston counties are among those with programs to train fire department responders or others with prior experience.

In 2000, Guilford County EMS developed a groundbreaking in-house program to provide the additional training needed for EMTs to become paramedics. The program has created more than 200 paramedics over its two-decade existence, and this success is being extended to the creation of the EMT Launchpad.

Applications for the first class of 12 students are being accepted through March 20, with the program expected to start near the end of April.

cingram@hpenews.com — 336-888-3534 — @HPEcinde