Ep 34 | Is A Career In Emergency Medicine Right for Your Kid?

SPEAKER_02 0:00

It's not like you're going to live your life in that ambulance box all day. I mean, you're going to see other things in the hospital, you're driving patients off. And I think it's really cool that they've broadened it. So the rides are really good at saying, do you want to do EMS? And if not, it's still giving you a really, really good opportunity to see the whole world of emergency medicine.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. We all want every child in Escambi County to get as much of a head start in life as they possibly can. My next guests are examples of how schools and community employment opportunities can unite to provide students with options that they can explore hands-on. They are the director of the Academy of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine at West Florida High School, and a graduate of that program, who is now a flight nurse medic at Life Flight Pensacola. Today they're going to share how West Florida's unique EMT program contributes to the success of students and saves lives. Florida Locals, EMT mentor and success story, Terry Thomas and Dakota Ward. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

You must be a super proud papa to see Dakota, you know, in the program, graduated the program, and now, you know, he's doing well. That must feel amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

It does, uh, just to be able to see the progression he's gone through. And he really represents the epitome of what these programs are all about and how they function and what you would expect as a diamond outcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Well, no pressure, Dakota, on how you respond today to the questions because you are the epitome and diamond outcome.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I kid you not. Yeah, I like to be a little more humble than that, but uh it definitely is a a thing that we can progress through. And um definitely the program put me on my way to my my career choices for sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

And it's really I love hearing how many teachers in the community have inspired other teachers in the community to you know come up through the ranks. And so I'm curious, Terry, what inspired you to get into the the field of EMT and become a teacher?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Well, it was a cold frosty more. Well, I won't go back that far. But I will go back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Is that your birth story you're about to share?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Kind of, but I will go back to the birth of my curiosity about it. When I was uh 12 years old, I was in a school where my sister worked, and my little classmate was in there with me, and her mother worked in there, and we were in the office. A sudden clap of thunder turned the lights off. She jumped in my lap three seconds later, the lights came on, Barbara got up, and I went home. I lived right by the school. My father and I went to go to the store and I looked up at the school, and black smoke was boiling out the end of the school in Laurel Hill, Florida. It burned down to the ground. That day I saw a firefighter bunker out, air pack, everything, and crawl under a burning building, and I was amazed at that. Then in high school I saw a frog man pull a drowned body out of the river. And uh when I joined the Air Force, they said, What job would you like? I said, Firefighter. So that's how I started, and I ended up going to paramedic school. Uh during that period of time, I went to nursing school, and then I've worked in several different places in nursing and fire in different places. So that's how I got started.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Wow, that's a pretty incredible story. Dakota, I don't think you can top that, but I would like to know your origin story, sir.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

He can.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Well, I don't I don't think I can top it, but I can definitely say that it started with um that program for sure. So when I entered West Florida High School in uh my freshman year, um I thought I wanted to do Sports Med, which no, no shame to those that do that. That's awesome. Um but that's what I thought I wanted to do. But we got to go around and actually tour the different programs. They called it Blueprint at the time. And um I got to watch um Terry here, or Mr. Thomas, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to call you now.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Um he calls me Terry now.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

You never know. Um so I got to watch him. Um we did an open house and talked about EMS, and it really intrigued me. I had never considered it up until that point. So it was something that really opened my eyes to the field. Um, I got to watch um him call up a volunteer and put them in fire boots and hold up um an A, if those who are familiar with an AED, the things that shock you on the wall, um, he made a nervous volunteer hold up the pads as he shocked it, and he was like, watch for the arc. And this person was shaking in their boots, and I thought it was hilarious. So I knew we'd get along. Um and um, of course, it's just a trainer, it does absolutely nothing, it's very anticlimactic, but it was it was a good bit. Um and went through the program, decided to join the EMS program. It was just very intriguing, very exciting. Um, I tend to be an adrenaline guy, I think. And we did another open house or an open house, it was more of a career fair thing at the local college, and um what my now current employer um landed out the helicopter out there for this career field that was health-minded, it was nursing, it was all allied health. Um and I was like, I want to do that 100%. That's what I'm doing. And every career goal from that point, um, which was launched from the high school experience led me to that direction.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

That is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

So I went to EMT, went to paramedic, ultimately went to nursing school as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

So Right, because you're not just a medic, you're a nurse flight medic. Did I get that right?

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Uh I think on paper I'm a flight nurse is my job title, but I'm also a paramedic, so I can fill either seat. Um in a helicopter, it's normally a pilot, a nurse and a medic. Of course, there's exceptions to that with different programs, but so I can sit in either seat. I can be a flight nurse for the day or flight medic for the day. The job description is really very similar. It doesn't really change my day-to-day.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

What is the difference?

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Um different different specialties, different um perspectives you're coming from. Um the helicopters do scene work, like you know, what people mostly think of with um car crashes and stuff out in their kind of trauma stuff, but we also do a lot of transfers where we're in the hospital and ICU transporting patients. Um and so they kind of take the perspective from each of those crew members, and you know, you've got some good field experience, you've got some good critical care nursing experience, and you put them together and it's a really good team.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Okay. So is that a typical progression of an EMT career? Like, is that what people uh aspire to achieve?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Um I'd like to think I mean it's definitely what I wanted to achieve, but it's not for everybody. Um, but I have watched a lot of people come up through, I was also an adjunct instructor for an EMT program for a bit. And some people use the EMT program as a way to get hours for higher level learning, such as PA or med school. They it's a really good way to get patient contact hours while they go through school and get their undergrad, and they can launch that way, or they can do the progression that I did where I went EMT to paramedics nurse. Some people go straight to nursing, and that's all. That's just it depends on the person and what their goals are.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Okay, so there's a lot of flexibility, but it can mean, you know, a career bump and pay bump for somebody that's you know thinking about this career.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Absolutely. I mean you're not you're never locked into, you know, if you choose to do EMT, that's just the first step. You can be an EMT for life if you want to be, or you can use it as a stepping stone.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Interesting. So paint me a picture, Terry. What does the EMT program at the school look like?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Okay. Um one, I have to clarify misconceptions, it's not an EMT program.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

It's an emergency medical responder program.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

What's the difference? What would be the problem?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Emergency medical responder is the very first step on the journey. It's not an employable certification. EMT is an employable state certification. So you have to be 18 and complete in a certified EMT school to take the state board to be an EMT. Uh the program that I have, their in their primary indust industry certification is certified EKG technician, and they can get the EMR, which is a step on the road to becoming an EMT or a paramedic. Um, but the progression of it is they come into the ninth grade, we teach them anatomy and physiology. The next year we teach them all.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

I mean, that's big right there. Anatomy and physiology as a ninth grader. I mean, is it the same level that you would be taking as like um when you start to your journey to become a nurse where you have to learn the names of everything and have it memorized?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

It's it's introductory anatomy and physiology. So but yes, it is uh it can be quite intense for them. And uh I've had uh ninth grade students run for cover when they found out what they had to learn and get into other programs and uh you know mom and daddy got involved and it's like is it gonna be this way? Yes, it's gonna be this way. This is uh AMP is the fundamental really science for anybody in healthcare. You know, and you add in chemistry and all the other things that are prerequisite, but they start in AMP in the ninth grade, and then the next year they uh do a program, it's called Foundations, but it's all about careers and what the opportunities are, and then they get heavily into medical terminology and they have to learn, you know, all these fundamental skills. In the eleventh grade, I teach all the juniors how to read EKGs for the first time, and they don't have any previous experience to learn this material. It's completely new to them, and sometimes their eyes get really big and they're not quite sure how this is going to happen, but there's a semester of that. And then the next semester, um, I teach them dosages and solutions, how to do the math associated with pharmacology. And then I do a pharmacology section and uh a couple other things that they find to be quite intense in their eleventh grade year. And uh they do something called capstone at West Florida High School, which is their research project in their 11th grade year. And then when they become a senior, they diverge into their particular academies. So I get all the seniors that are in my academy, pre-nursing, they go their way, sports medicine goes their way, and the twain shall never meet again.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

So they still so they still do it the same way as when I went through where all of the I'll just call them allied health programs, pre-nursing, sports med, um, your critical care program, they're all you may be intermingled with other cohorts, and then it's not till your senior year you break into your career specialty.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

And I always thought that was really cool, like looking back on it, because it's very preparatory for college. It's it's almost like these are your prerequisites for your degree. And I mean it's just like a college program when you get into your senior year of something, and now you're getting into the you know actual meat and potatoes of your of your field. So I thought that was really cool. It kind of gave you an idea of what to expect when you went on to secondary education.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah, I would think so too. I would also think that it would like uh kind of weed out the students that maybe just thought it was a good idea, but then through anatomy class, that would be me. I'd be out after anatomy class. I'd I can't memorize all this stuff. Um, and and so that way the kids that are all the way to their senior year following this track, they're, you know, I think more equipped, would you agree, for you know, success in the actual field because even as literal children, they made it through these courses.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

And that's that's what I'm that's what I'm saying. Is is you know, you're coming into their 14 years old. Yeah, you think, oh, I want to do something health related. And then you take the first AMP class and realize I don't care about mitochondria that and that it's the powerhouse of the cell. I'm gonna go do a different program. And they get a chance to to change it at least once or no.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

The opportunities are less to do that now because it's not really efficient, and um, but it it does happen sometimes. They'll change programs. Just when they find out what I teach, um, there's a a run for the hill sometimes. So and that's that's one of the purposes of doing it. You know, they understand that I'm not that interested in this, and then when they get into their senior year and they do their clinicals and their ride-alongs, that's really the first time that they touch actual human beings.

unknown 12:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

And that changes their mind sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Yeah, so talk to me, talk to me about that. What does what is the impact of the ride-alongs? Why are they important?

SPEAKER_01 12:50

It's the critical component of the entire program, and we have a wonderful business partner, Escamek County EMS. Um, they provide the opportunity every year for my seniors to go do um four um 13-hour rides on an ambulance, and that is a game changer. They go out there and they find out what Dakota does every day. And uh I think right now Scambia County EMS averages about 192 calls every day.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

What? Every day?

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Every day.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

It's a super busy agency for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Super busy. And so when they go, they're completely immersed in the environment. If they have cardiac arrest, they're gonna be doing they're doing helping them do CPR and managing an airway and bagging the person who's not breathing and doing whatever they have to do. So they're exposed to things they never really imagined. And so uh at that point I've told the uh parents in open house, uh if you want to know what your child's gonna do as a senior if they're in this program, I can't tell you. I don't know what they're going to have to do.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Because of the unpredictability of it.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Because of the unpredictability and actually the predictability of it, it's gonna happen. Right? And so uh I tell them that uh if you want to really know what's gonna go on in that ambulance for those four 13-hour rides, go home and watch the news. And that'll give you a really good idea of what's gonna happen on that ambulance.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

So are the students uh hands-on with patients when they're in the ambulance?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

I mean, they're largely observational just because they're with a crew that's gonna be doing their normal job. Um, but like you said, I mean, we've had students that have been able to do chest compressions and I mean they're just getting a really front row view of this situation.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Wow. And what was your write-along like? What was the impact that it had on you?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

I don't remember anything specific about it, um, other than I just was eat up with it. I mean, it was I mean, fire passion, you know, this is what I this is what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Like it sealed, like you you kind of sealed the deal ninth grade, you know, when you had that experience in ninth grade, and then the other career fair, and then it just double triple sealed the deal.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

There was no question. I really feel bad for people who were like, I don't know really what I want to do when you know when they're graduating, they're picking their major. I mean, it's a big bummer and it's a big decision when you're 17, 18 years old. But totally. Luckily, I never had that problem. I knew exactly what I want to do, but it was only because of this program. Otherwise, I probably would have been just flying blind like everybody else. That what am I gonna do when I grow up? I'm still trying to figure that out. Um, but the ride-alongs were great. I don't think we got four though. I think we got two.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

No, you've got three.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Yeah, two or three, whatever. I think it was two. I'm just kidding. I do remember that there are some students that dec decide this is not for them. And it's a good way for them to say, okay, this is not for me. But it's only a piece of it. I mean, I think they've morphed the program from an EMS fire perspective to this now critical care program, where it's very much more broad now.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Well, that makes sense. I mean, if you have 192 calls a day, you're more likely to have a call like that than a fire call.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

True, true. But uh even wider than like nursing, PA, med school, you know, all the things that they're teaching this program. I learned EKGs in paramedic school and I learned EKGs in nursing school, and I already knew it. You know, so it's very broad. So if I do my ride-along and discover either A, I love this, which I did, or B, your face lights up just when you say that.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

It's it's cracking me up like how much excitement is coming from you on a job that you already have. You know, it's not like the future or something you're going to aspire to. You are totally lit up for, you know, people can't see you right now, obviously. They're just hearing this. But I want the audience to know your face is literally beaming every time you say uh, you know, talk about it. It's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Yeah. Um I'm trying to think of where I was at with that. Sorry I interrupted you. No, you're fine, you're fine. Um, so if they do the ambulance, you know, and they say, Man, I like the emergency side of this, you've got a lot of options. You can do because when you're taking these patients to the ambulance, you're gonna drop off in the ER. So maybe in your mind as a student, you're thinking, I don't really want to be a paramedic or an EMT, but an ER nerd sounds cool. Oh. Or an ER physician sounds cool. Okay. You're seeing all of it because it's not like you're gonna live your life in that ambulance box all day. I mean, you're gonna see other things in the hospital, you're dropping patients off. And I think it's really cool that they've broadened it. So the the rides are really good at saying, Do you want to do EMS? And if not, it's still giving you a really, really good opportunity to see the whole world of emergency medicine. Which and even now the program's not even strictly emergency medicine. Now it's going into critical care, which is where ICU level stuff again.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

In the first year, in in the senior year in their first semester, they actually uh our other awesome business partner is Baptist Healthcare. And so Miss Jennifer Grove at Baptist Healthcare has uh um paved the way for me to be able to get these high school students into every intensive care unit, the recovery room, uh all those places in the hospital where you have very sick, ventilated, hemodynamically unstable patients. And so uh the seniors do uh 16 hours, two days. We go up there for two days and they rotate through those the ER and places like that to see these sick patients. So they have an idea of where they're taking patients when they finally get them on an ambulance in the second semester, so they get a uh cycle of it. So it's an umbrella of health care, not just EMS, although that's you know, one of the focuses of the program, but they see uh what anesthesia does, they see uh what the critical care nurse does at the bedside, they see what the CCU nurse does with heart attacks and ECMO and ventilators, and it's quite technical, and they get an they get an eyeful.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I could really see how this program, especially those interactive aspects of this program, would benefit parents and students because, you know, like you were saying, Dakota, about you know, you're 17, 18 trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up. But as a parent, you're thinking, what am I paying you to be when you grow up, right? And so if the student can weed out if this is a good career path for them on the front end before the parents take out student loans, et cetera, then that's really helping our whole community's economy, right? Because then you have fewer students with student loan debt potentially, uh, that they're not even in the field, you know, to be able to pay off.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And and what's the risk? I mean, at the end of the day, say you don't want to do medical at all. A P is an elective course. So you've already been introduced to that. Um, you know, the biology will be very science-heavy with like biology and A and P. And like you're saying you could do anything, really. I mean, this is just an idea. Hopefully the students love it, but you can take very similar classes and you're already going to be prepped for college courses, even if you just an elective A and P.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

It's not a pigeonhole program because what you have to realize they're in public high school and it's all being paid for by you and I, our our tax dollars. And this senior in high school can t get their industry certification as an EKG technician if they went to uh a community college and took that very same course, it would cost them somewhere in the neighborhood, and I may get chastised, but a little over three thousand dollars. So that's uh an opportunity for them to get a certification that they got in high school, and uh they wouldn't have to pay for that. So the umbrella's wide. They could go into respiratory therapy or nursing or m just any area in healthcare, but they don't have to go into healthcare at all. They're taking calculus in high school, they're taking all their other maths and sciences and histories. It's a wall-to-wall academy high school that we have at West Florida, and they have an opportunity to see it and do it and choose it if they choose to.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

That's pretty incredible. And you as Dakota, as a you know, someone who went through the program, fell in love with it head over heels, and are successfully in it, you know, in real life. What qualities would you say would make a good prospective uh student of this program? Like so imagine, you know, a parent is listening to this and they're trying to suss out is my kid a good candidate for this potentially? What qualities would you think they should look for?

SPEAKER_02 21:29

I don't know that it has to be, you know, exclude, you know, excluding anybody, um, anybody who wants to do it. I mean, it's like we said, they're you know, these kids are coming in very young. Their personality are gonna change and grow, and if they love it, they'll go towards it. If not, I mean, um though I think the people who are like myself who maybe like a little more excitement you know, want to be outside, maybe don't want to work that desk job that they're, you know, seeing like maybe their parents do. Like I'm they don't want to work in a cubicle. I mean it's a great way to be outside. And and still do things. Now, obviously, hospital's inside, so I have to mention that as well. But it's not, you know, your normal office work. So, you know, if somebody wants to do something a little different and have fun and every day's different, you know, if if you're not one for huge routine, maybe their kids are off the walls a little bit and don't like to do the same thing every day. This would be a good and a good one to jump into.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

That's really good information to know. What would you say, Terry, that people misunderstand the most about this program?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Um that it's an umbrella program that is not a pigeonhole. They hear the words EMS, they hear the words emergency medicine, um, but it's a a critical care emergency medicine introductory program. And uh all the things that we focus on are focused towards those areas, but um they can take this foundational basic introductory knowledge and apply it to they can go be a lawyer if they want to. Maybe they'll do personal injury and they'll know about anatomy and physiology, or they'll have an idea about what happens when a person has a motor vehicle accident, but they're a lawyer, but they have this background knowledge. Maybe they're gonna be somebody who puts emphasis into raising a family. Well, their children are safer because of what they learned in high school. So uh the the students that leave my program, I feel like we're sending out a support to the community in many ways, not just individually for them for their education, but how are you a benefit to the community at large? And they learn skills that are applicable in many, many different areas.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Well said.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

That was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

That was sweet. I I feel like we should snap. That was beautiful. No, it really was. It really was. Because I think about you know, how many of us don't even know how to live in our own bodies, right? Like like my my arm hurts, and you go to the doctor, what do they say? What kind of hurt is it? And you're like, what do you mean? Do you remember the first time the doctor asked you that? You probably don't, because you were like all in it. Well, me as a normal person who never took, you know, any anatomy class, I was like, What do you mean? It hurts. There's one word for that. What are you talking about, doc?

SPEAKER_01 24:18

But to be able to have let's test duck. Tell us about hurt. What about described it? How can you describe hurt? Tell me about your pain, Doc. You're having pain. What kind of pain are you having?

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Um well, you know, it could be you know radiating.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

You know, or it could be piercing, burning, you know, all those, you know, all the things you learn in the front. Crushing, crushing.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yeah, correct. Squeezing. Could be heavy pressure. Heavy pressure.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Wow. These are great adjectives, guys. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

If a parent is so proud of him, you you just don't realize what it's like to see him have evolved into this thing that he is. And now he teaches me stuff. So it impresses me.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

That's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

It is. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

If a parent is listening to this and wants to get their student involved, what's their first step?

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Um come to open house at West Florida High School, bring your eighth grader up there, let them see all the programs, and then pick the one that's best for your child, not the one that's best for your child's friends. I don't care about your child's friends. They'll be in their own program. So if you have a child that's interested in science, that has a uh, you know, a fairly gregarious personality uh that can follow directions and be obedient and be vetted as to somebody who I would let go ride on an ambulance or go to an intensive care unit, then come to that open house, make the application at West Florida, um, then there's a fairly significant vetting process at that point, and if they're chosen, they would get to come to that magnet school and start that journey.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Awesome. Well, thank you again. This was very cool. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Thank you. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambie County Public School