EMTS Learn to Save Lives

I thought it would be interesting to sit in an Emergency Medical Technician lab session at Mt. Hood Community College, and it was great to see future heroes of the community get their training in.

While it was great to see these students practice their skills, I hope I never see them again – because that most likely means that I am in a bad, or even a life-or-death, situation – which is best avoided by a journalist!

I learned a lot about the people who are attracted to this program and got to ask the lab instructors and the program director Michelle Classen about the ins and outs of this very rewarding and challenging program.

The students who are attracted to this program are looking for careers in fire or emergency medical service agencies, wildland fire services, hospitals, and plasma centers, or are seeking exposure to emergency medicine, Classen told us.

I spoke to some of the students that attended the lab and I was enlightened to find out that a lot of them took their first steps into health professions as swim lifeguards, right here at MHCC or somewhere else in the community.

Photos by Ken Perez

It was great to learn about the instructors, and the director herself, who has been the program leader for the last seven years. Classen said she has been a paramedic for 32 years, working on 9-1-1 units in Texas, Washington, and Oregon during her career. She also has served as an educator, tutor, and training officer for the last 20 years.

Classen is a board member on the State of Oregon EMS Board, representing community colleges in Oregon. As the program director at Mt. Hood she is responsible for creating and maintaining current EMT curriculum, and the instruction portion of the EMT program.

Margo Testa, an MHCC alumnus, is the lead lab instructor for the EMT program. She said she is proud to help students learn how to be proficient in really challenging areas and added that “these people will one day help your friends and family.”

Testa also has worked as a dispatcher for the Oregon State Police and worked for American Medical Response (ambulance company) as an EMT. Along with being lead lab instructor at MHCC she is also currently serving in the Portland-based U.S. Air Force 304th Rescue Squadron as a Medical Technician and Squadron medical element – a mix of an intermediate/advanced EMT and licensed practical nurse, she explained.

Testa wanted to share that persons enrolling in the program learn to practice medicine. What the Mt. Hood program provides is “foundational knowledge” that can be used to further one’s education in many different medical fields, she said.

It was a great experience to see all the students learn and get feedback from the EMT lab instructors that day. It was late in the evening, and most of the students worked a full-time job before class. And I have no doubt that these students, with that much resolve, will do great things for our community in the future.