Local perspective on emergency medical response program

DARTMOUTH—THE first class of emergency medical responders (EMR) started their studies at the beginning of March, and according to one student, it’s been a success so far.

Truro’s Robert Dove, 61, is one of 14 students attending the Medavie Healthed program in Dartmouth to become an emergency medical responder.

He is also one of 200 students who will be trained over the next two years, according to a press release from the provincial government on Tuesday, March 12.

The program trains emergency first responders to work with paramedics to help with basic resuscitation and patient assessments. The hope is that this will reduce wait times and make more paramedics available.

“This new position will help fill a critical need in our healthcare system and help us fix healthcare,” said Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson in the release.

Dove began his classes on March 4. A volunteer firefighter with the Truro Fire Brigade, he is a retired clinical transport operator who retained an interest in the medical field.

“They offered this EMR course as a bridge before paramedic school,” said Dove. “I figured I’d rather do that than give them a full year of trying to get my paramedic license, where this is only a threemonth course.”

So far, Dove has been learning about basic life support, first aid, patient assessments, and scene surveys – ensuring the scene is safe for first responders while keeping the patient in mind.

While much of their time has been spent hitting the books, they are already acting out scenarios to put their skills to the test.

“This afternoon, we’re doing scenarios,” said Dove. “It’s going to be live patients, but there’s not really anything wrong with them. It's just going to practice our skills. They’re going to pretend that there’s something wrong with them, we’ll go in and assess, and take patient history and ask them what’s wrong and why they called 9-1-1.”

Dove said in their fourth week, they will go out on transfer units, travelling with non-sick patients who may need rides back and forth from appointments.

Near the end of the threemonth course, Dove and other students will begin working with paramedics to attend to and monitor sick patients.

“They’re going to make sure we’re accountable and know what we’re doing,” said Dove. “They’re not just going to let us go out there if we’re unsure.”

Dove agrees that courses like this are necessary, helping paramedics reach more patients and reducing wait times.

“These EMRS are going to give either the paramedics an extra hand in the field or free the paramedics up to do higher emergency calls than what we’re trained for,” he said.

Emergency medical responders can also attend to patients who are being offloaded to hospitals, waiting with them to be seen in place of a paramedic.

“As long as they’ve already been made stable, we can monitor them until they actually get a bed or are seen by the emergency department.”

“These EMRS are going to give either the paramedics an extra hand in the field or free the paramedics up to do higher emergency calls than what we’re trained for.”

Robert Dove Student