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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
New Kirkwood class helps tackle EMT shortage
Hybrid course geared to busy, rural students
Nov. 5, 2023 5:30 am, Updated: Nov. 5, 2023 11:10 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa students who live in rural areas or who have busy work schedules can more easily pursue emergency medical technician certification under a newly launched, partly online program at Kirkwood Community College.
Jon Faga had been an EMT, but life got in the way and his certification expired. He wanted to renew it, but didn’t have time to go to an in-person class several times a week. He took the new certification course during this year’s summer semester, and now is a lab instructor for the class.
“Over the past two years, I was looking for a course to take, but none of the schedules worked because I own my own business and we had a young child at home,” Faga said. “So, when I saw the hybrid setup, I knew that I’d finally be able to knock out that EMT certification.”
Kirkwood staff started planning the hybrid version of the semester-long EMT certification course in November 2022, and it launched for the first time last January for spring semester. The class includes 16 hours of required in-person lab time, when students work on skills with their instructors and can practice with Kirkwood equipment. But the rest of the class is done online through prerecorded lectures.
Students also have to submit videos showing they’ve practiced certain skills before an instructor signs off on them during lab hours. If the skills require specific equipment, students come to Kirkwood to use the college’s equipment when an EMT staff member is working or partner with local ambulance services to use its equipment, according to Kirkwood staff.
“We’ve realized not all of those that are interested in EMS can attend in-person classes. And for rural areas, it’s hard for them to come all the way to Cedar Rapids two or three times a week,” said Jacklyn Gillen, the Kirkwood emergency medical services education program director.
“Our students have outside jobs, they have full-time jobs, they have families … and this is something that they can do. They have the set eight weeks they have to complete the coursework in, but if 2 in the morning is when they can sit and listen to a lecture or record videos, then that’s when they can do it.”
Jill Smith also took the class over the summer, while working at the Mercy Medical Center Emergency Room. She still works at the ER part-time, and now also works as a lab instructor for the Kirkwood course.
“I really loved it. I study really well on my own and I really don’t have many distractions at home,” Smith said. “I liked that it allowed me to still work.”
Smith said she liked that she could listen to lectures whenever she could fit them in, like while she was on the treadmill, and that she could always reach her instructors when she needed to.
“The one thing we really wanted to make sure is that the instructor is always available. It's online, and we know when COVID hit a lot of instructors just sent a once-a-week email. We try to make sure that we're always very available and respond within 24 hours, and that they know that they can come in whenever,” said Hannah Konopinski, the Kirkwood EMS program developer.
The content covered in the online program is the same as what is discussed in the in-person class, which also is offered. Gillen said there hasn’t been any major difference between the certification exam passing rates for the hybrid class and the in-person class.
Faga said the online class made learning easier for him because he could easily return to and spend more time on the lectures that covered topics he had a harder time with, and he could move quickly through the portions of the class that he already understood.
“I think it's great that the lectures are recorded so students could go back and review whatever content that just might not have clicked at first, because there are some parts that don't click right away,” Konopinski said.
There are 36 students taking the hybrid class in the current semester, and 25 students in Kirkwood’s face-to-face EMS program. Many of the hybrid students are volunteers with rural fire departments and ambulance services. The class costs $2,160 for the semester.
Katie Lyman, the Kirkwood dean of Health Occupations and Healthcare Simulation, said enrollment in the EMT certification program has increased significantly since the hybrid program was introduced, which she hopes will help to combat the current staffing issues that ambulance services across the state are facing.
The success of the hybrid EMT program inspired the college to look into adding similar programs for other certifications. This semester, the school launched two more hybrid programs — one for the AEMT or advanced EMT, class, and one for the emergency medical responder course.
“We are thinking of exploring some options to have a further reach, since it's truly a nationwide shortage of EMS providers. That is a goal and an aspiration of ours, to be able to provide a little bit more, especially to those rural students that just can't get the education another way,” Lyman said.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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