Becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) is more than earning a certification; it is an opportunity to develop clinical skills, serve the community, and gain a deeper understanding of compassionate patient care. For students in the Institute of Clinical Bioethics, EMT training provides valuable hands-on experience while reinforcing the importance of communication, empathy, and service to others. Their certifications also allow them to take a more active role in the Institute’s wound care clinic in Kensington, where they can apply their skills to provide direct care to underserved members of the community. In the following reflections, Juniper Haglund, Spencer Mathers, Sebastian Bigas-Seda, and Nathan Frey share their motivations for pursuing EMT certification, the challenges and rewards of their training, and how these experiences have shaped their aspirations as future healthcare professionals.
Juniper Haglund (Biomedical Sciences, ’28)
I initially wanted to get my EMT certification so that I would have more opportunities to gain patient care experience, since I want to go to PA school. However, throughout the process, I realized how important EMT’s are to the community and how serious the field is.The most rewarding thing about my training was realizing the impact that EMTs have on patients. They are the first contact for people experiencing a medical emergency, and what an EMT does can significantly influence the patient’s outcome. There is a huge responsibility that comes with this role. One challenging moment was realizing the full scope of practice for an EMT and how serious the types of situations that they may be called to can be. My training taught me that I really enjoy connecting with patients and having a positive impact on them. I’m hoping to use my certification to do wound care and to work in an emergency room as a technician.
Spencer Mathers (Biology, ’28)
When I considered getting my EMT certification, the most important thing to me was about being right at the forefront of care, the first step in someone’s experience on what could potentially be the worst day of their lives. I wanted to work with compassion and competence as I upheld my duty to serve as a future medical professional. I found the most rewarding thing about training to be the fulfillment of a sense of purpose, and the person I saw myself becoming throughout the process. When I look back on my training and how I developed during it, I saw a change of both self and ability to serve. I found that a sense of purpose is my duty to care for others to the best of my abilities. The most challenging moment occurred when studying for my certification exams. I felt like even though I had gone through months of training, I still felt like I had so much left to learn and that there was so much I didn’t know. I grappled with this for some time and realized that it is an intrinsic part of medicine. The field is an area of constant learning, and while we cannot dream to know everything about every scenario, we can still hope to be in the constant pursuit of learning and improvement. This is the most drawing part of medicine for me, as nothing is ever a stagnant practice.
Moving forward with my certification, I hope to not only work in the Wound Care clinic with the Institute, I also hope to work as an EMT with an ambulance company and get experience in the ER. I want to be able to see as much as I can before going to medical school, and I believe that working as an EMT will help me to provide the best patient care possible as a future physician. Ultimately, my EMT training didn’t just prepare me to care for patients; it helped shape the kind of clinician I hope to become.
Sebastian Bigas-Seda (Biology, ’29)
Until relatively recently, I never imagined myself being an EMT. Not only was I uneducated in the importance of EMTs in healthcare, but I didn’t think it was something I’d be capable of doing. However, once I learned more from my peers who had already become EMTs and researched the field, I realized that it was exactly what I was looking for in terms of clinical experience. When I started the class this summer, the biggest hurdle I had to overcome was the scheduling of everything as I was balancing summer research with other responsibilities at home, now that school was over. Yet, what I enjoyed the most about training was the time I got to spend actually on the rig–soaking up the experience of being an EMT. The first couple calls I rode along for, I was very anxious but the more I got into the flow of everything, I realized this space was exactly where I wanted to be. Furthermore, I learned through my experience over the summer, that one of the most important aspects of patient care overall is communication. To be a quality healthcare provider, you must communicate every aspect of treatment to the patient and their loved ones in the most clear and transparent fashion. In many situations, patients are skeptical and unnerved by healthcare providers because we often do such a poor job of conveying the intricacies of treatment. By observing the exceptional EMTs and Paramedics of my training center, this fact became abundantly clear to me and I hope to follow in their footsteps as I work as an EMT from now into the foreseeable future.
Nathan Frey (Biology, ’29)
What motivated me to pursue my EMT certification was the opportunity to finally provide wound care in Kensington. For the past year, I had been on the sidelines watching upperclassmen who were EMTs provide hands-on care to patients. Seeing the impact they were able to make inspired me to pursue my own certification so that I could become more involved and directly serve the Kensington community. The most rewarding part of my training was being able to see what I had learned in action during my ride-alongs. I was able to see how the skills I had learned could make an impact on people’s lives, while also meeting some really great people, both in EMS and among the patients we cared for. One meaningful moment happened on my first day of mobile wound care. I witnessed someone who had overdosed and was lying on the street. Two police officers had already administered one dose of Narcan but were just standing by and watching him. When our team arrived, we noticed that he had apneic breathing and a weak carotid pulse. Josh Frantz then administered a second dose of Narcan, and the patient woke up. Seeing that situation unfold really puts into perspective the work we are doing and the impact we can have on the community. One thing my training has taught me is that patient care is not always about giving medication, applying a splint, or performing a medical procedure. Sometimes, all a patient needs is someone to talk to or even a hug. You are meeting people on some of the worst days of their lives, and sometimes simply being there for them can be the best thing you can do. I hope to continue providing wound care in Kensington moving forward and to help as many people as I can.