Partnership Allows Medics to Receive Paramedic Training
No matter where you go in the Army, you’re bound to find a medic. The second largest military occupational specialty in the Army, medics serve in almost every unit, staff our hospitals and go on every deployment to ensure the health and welfare of our Soldiers serving overseas.
All 68Ws, Army medics, graduate their advanced individual training as basic emergency medical technicians, EMT-B. This meets the minimum U.S. standard for basic life support and enables them to perform the basic tasks they will need at their units, but provides very limited opportunities for employment when they leave the Army.
To help further the skills of some of Fort Bragg’s medics, Womack Army Medical Center partnered with Fayetteville Technical Community College to provide the opportunity for a pilot project, allowing them the opportunity to earn attend EMT-Paramedic training.
“I believe there is a need for us to continue our medical training in the Army,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Carlos Gomez, senior enlisted advisor, WAMC. “Right now, it stops at EMT-Basic. The goal of this course is to provide additional training and enhance the skills, knowledge and readiness of our medics as they become paramedics.”
Gomez said that the training level of 68Ws should reflect the roles they play in caring for service members deployed overseas.
“In deployed settings, medics, corpsman and medical technicians fill vital roles,” said Gomez. “When they return stateside, they’re often relegated to minor clinical and non-clinical roles due to the current certification level of an EMT-Basic.”
Gomez said when looking for ways to increase training, FTCC was the obvious place to turn because they were already training civil affairs medics to become paramedics and had the infrastructure in place. He said the partnership is a great because it also gets the medics out into the local community as they complete their course work. ….
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