ESSEX, Vt. (WCAX) – Emergency Medical Services students at the Center for Technology Essex on Friday morning got an up-close look at a DHART helicopter in action.
“What we’re doing here today is introducing the care we can bring to folks with the critical care helicopter,” said David Weiss with the UVM Medical Center Critical Care Transport team.
Students learned how to set up a landing zone, talked with the flight crew, and got inside the helicopter. They also witnessed the job in action when the crew was called away for a patient transport.
“I remember being their age, watching a helicopter land and saying one day I gotta get up there and do that,” Weiss said.
The EMS program launched at the beginning of the school year under instructor Eric LaRose, who says opportunities like this help students understand their career options. “We’re trying to keep them excited,” LaRose said. “Broaden their scope of what’s out there for these types of careers.”
Fourteen students are currently working to complete the pathway, including Ashley Jones and Lillian Szykier, who switched into the program from the center’s health profession pathway.
“What I like is that you can’t always expect what’s going to happen,” said Szykier.
Students learn CPR, how to navigate their way around an ambulance, and how to treat traumatic injuries.
“Being able to come here and practice these skills, to then later go on to working a job like that, is really, really helpful,” Jones said.
At the end of the year, students will sit for an exam that could earn them their EMT certification.
LaRose said the program addresses a critical need in Vermont’s emergency services. “I work in this field and I see us aging out and no one coming in to fill those spots,” he said. “It’s super important to get students interested in that field, interested in giving back to their community, as well as making that a career path.”
