Kellogg Community College’s Emergency Medical Services students have more training opportunities on campus thanks to the donation of an ambulance from the Marshall Area Fire Fighters Ambulance Authority.
The MAFFAA has also committed funds for scholarships to put three of its Basic EMTs through KCC’s Paramedic Program, beginning this fall.
Mark Burke, executive director of the MAFFAA, said the organization is heavily involved with the College and has “complete faith” in the EMS Program. The ambulance donation and scholarship initiative is a way to expand the skill set of MAFFAA staff and raise the quality of care in the community as a whole.
“KCC is an excellent program,” Burke said. The ambulance donation and scholarship were “a natural thing for us, because we understand the quality of programming and we have confidence in it. We fully support the program and we always have.”
Clark Imus, EMS Education faculty coordinator at KCC, said the College spent $20,000 to refurbish the donated ambulance, and that a similar model would’ve cost as much as $80,000 new.
Imus said the ambulance will be used to take students’ training outside the classroom, allowing them to train “in environments that can be difficult or impossible to recreate in the lab.” The ambulance will be used for the program’s emergency driving course to teach students “all aspects of operating an emergency vehicle,” and will also be used for EMT and paramedic simulation training and recruitment events.
While KCC has used an older ambulance for training purposes for the past several years, Imus said the new ambulance is more reliable and will also allow the program to train with multiple responding EMS/ambulance units to create more realistic and challenging training scenarios for students.
Imus said the EMS Program’s long-standing relationship with the MAFFAA is a strong partnership that plays a key role in the program’s success and ability to carry out its mission of “saving lives through education.”
“Marshall Ambulance works hard to serve their community, whether that be through emergency medical care to the Marshall service area or through the investment of their employees,” Imus said. “Through our partnership we continue to ensure the best education and EMS providers in our shared community.”
The MAFFAA Basic EMTs who are the recipients of the MAFFAA scholarship funds to become paramedics at KCC are Kristen Jaskiw, of Albion; Abigail Sanger, of Litchfield; and Josh Turner, of Marshall. All graduated from KCC’s program within the past few years.
The additional education needed to become a paramedic will allow each EMT to provide “a higher level of service to the community,” Burke said. This includes the ability to start IVs, administer medications, including life-saving cardiac drugs, do intubation procedures and offer other services EMTs aren’t licensed to provide. The scholarships are the first of what Burke hopes to be an annual offering for MAFFAA employees to continue their education in the EMS field.
“The scholarships for paramedic training that MAFFAA provides allows for employees to serve their community while improving the level of care they can provide as a paramedic,” Imus said. “These students will be able to focus on their education, while serving their communities, without the burden of student debt. With the nationwide shortage of EMS providers, it is investments by employers like MAFFAA that are helping to invest in the future.”
For more information about KCC’s EMS Program, visit www.kellogg.edu/ems. For more information about the MAFFAA, visit www.marshallambulance.org.
Pictured in the above photo are KCC and MAFFAA officials with the donated and newly refurbished ambulance on the left. From left to right are MAFFAA Basic EMTs Kristen Jaskiw and Abigail Sanger, KCC EMS Education Faculty Coordinator Clark Imus, KCC Public Safety Education Director Rob Miller, MAFFAA Executive Director Mark Burke, MAFFAA Operations Manager Nick Smith and MAFFAA Basic EMT Josh Turner. Contact KCC Digital Marketing Manager Simon Thalmann at thalmanns@kellogg.edu for high-resolution full-size photos.
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