As part of EMS week Humboldt EMS hosted an open house at their home base on May 26.
The open house provided members of the community the opportunity to get to know their local paramedics and provided them an opportunity to get a feel for some of what the paramedics do on a daily basis.
There were tours of an ambulance setup for community members to tour through.
“They can look in the ambulance, sit in the ambulance, see what it’s like. It’s not like everybody gets the chance to be in an ambulance. In fact, we hope they don’t get a chance to be in the ambulance,” said Humboldt EMS Operations Manager David Mortensen.
There was also a blood pressure station setup to allow community members the opportunity to check their own blood pressure.
There was a slideshow that was running as well to show people some of the programs that Humboldt EMS take part in, including the recent PARTY program, as well as sports standby’s including at Humboldt Broncos games.
The slideshow also contained some important information regarding heart attacks and strokes, says David.
A mannequin was strapped to a stretcher to show people how they might be strapped to a board if they were to be in a car crash or were injured in other ways.
David says they also wanted kids to come down to visit the station as well so they setup a colouring station for the kids.
“They can colour the pictures and put them up on the wall here and that’s pretty good for us because it makes us feel good. We look at it a few times they don’t just go right in the garbage after we’re done…and (they) remind us of the good time that we had tonight.”
David says it is really important to him to be able to show the children what the paramedics do and give the kids an opportunity to get to know the paramedics so they are a little more used to them, making them a little less scared if they needed to visit the kids’ house to help them or their family.
“We just want them to understand that they don’t need to be afraid of us. They don’t have to be scared if an ambulance shows up at their house. We’re here to help them or help their family member.”
The open house also gave the public the opportunity to get familiarized with the various levels of paramedics that could be visiting them including advanced care, intermediate care and primary care with each level holding various levels of abilities and skills.
Becky Atkin is a six year ACP, Advanced Care Paramedic, with Humboldt EMS and says she became an advanced care paramedic because she likes helping people and thinks it is important to be able to help people in her own community. By being an advanced care paramedic she can do a little more to help.
Atkin says she has the ability to provide different medications for pain control including narcotics for patients who have been burned or have been involved in trauma including fractured bones.
She also has more ability to help patients with cardiac arrest, including administering certain drugs, as well as the ability to intubate patients to provide them with an advanced airway.
Atkin says, she was pleased to see Humboldt EMS host the open house because it allowed the community the opportunity to see that the paramedics can provide immediate care.
“Those initial assessments and treatments that will be done in the emergency department, we can do a lot of them in the ambulance.”
Rhonda Mortensen is an 18-year intermediate care paramedic.
As an intermediate care paramedic Rhonda says that the difference between an intermediate and a primary care paramedic is becoming fewer and further between because the province is starting to train primary care paramedics at the intermediate level but says there still are a few differences.
“A lot of it is more medications that we can administer…some cardiac skills are also included,” she said.
Some of the medications that intermediate care paramedics can administer include anti-seizure medication, as well as some anti-nausea medication as well.
With the difference between advanced care and intermediate and even primary care paramedics Rhonda says they do try to have one primary or intermediate care paramedic paired up with an advanced care paramedic but depending on day-to-day operation shifts, as well as holidays, it is not always possible.
In situations where there is not an advanced paramedic on the pair and one is needed, Rhonda says the paramedics have the opportunity to make an Advanced Life Support Intercept to try and call in an advanced paramedic and they would provide all of the care they are allowed to in the mean time.
Shaun Parfitt has been a primary care paramedic for two years and says he decided to be a paramedic after first being a first responder, which he really enjoyed.
“It’s nice to be able to give back to help out and just to see what a difference you can make in somebody’s life.”
Some of the abilities of a primary care paramedic include cardiac monitoring, administering certain medications, and initiating an intravenous as required, says Parfitt.
David says he wished there were a few more people who came out to the open house but said it provided them with an opportunity for the paramedics to get together.
“We’re not always together because we work different shifts so it brought a bunch of us together.”
Despite the slower evening David says he was very appreciative of the people who did show up.
“We’ve had some of the other agencies show up which we’re always glad when they show up because EMS is not just about the medical end… we work really well with the other three agencies, the fire department, the RCMP and even our hospital.”
In the future David hopes that they can make it a yearly open house and hopes that it will catch on even better next year.
