Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
By PATRICK COURREGES
The Advocate (Louisiana)
LAFAYETTE, La. — A booming offshore oil and gas job market and the rush of opportunities in a recovering New Orleans have pushed Lafayette-based Acadian Ambulance to step up efforts to put more people on ambulance detail.
Dr. Ross Judice, medical director for Acadian, said keeping ambulances staffed with emergency medical technicians has become a concern for not only Acadian, but for the emergency medical service industry in the state.
“We have a tremendous problem with our staffing shortage,” he said.
In response to that, Acadian has begun a recruiting campaign, offering bonuses for new employees who sign up for Acadian’s National EMT Academy at South Louisiana Community College.
Judice said the academy is expanding from offering the nine-week basic EMT course primarily in the fall, with occasional summer and spring courses, to offering all courses in all three semesters regularly.
The national shortage in nurses has led to a drain on trained EMTs and paramedics for some time, he said.
Judice said since hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through Louisiana, Acadian is competing for employees with sectors that it had not had to compete with in the past.
The offshore oil and gas industry is offering up to twice the money a starting EMT can make, Judice said.
He said New Orleans retail jobs are offering high enough pay and incentives to pull employees out of ambulances and into other work, because the money is good and the work is easier.
“It’s hard work, working out of an ambulance. In my mind, it’s the hardest health-care job there is,” Judice said. “It’s physically demanding; you’re constantly lifting.”
Although the work is challenging, Judice said working in the paramedic field is rewarding.
“You have tremendous respect from the public, tremendous respect from medical colleagues at the hospitals,” Judice said.
EMTs and paramedics can get the satisfaction of knowing they are saving lives and making a real difference in their work, he said.
“We have countless stories of people who have been saved from cardiac arrests,” Judice said.
He said the ambulance crews take pride in doing what they do.
“They don’t dance in the end zone when they save somebody; they don’t spike the breathing tube into the ground,” he said. “They get another call.”
Beyond the job satisfaction, Judice said, working as an EMT can be a stepping stone to other work in the health-care field.
Judice said staffing has always been an issue in the industry because EMTs and paramedics often move into other parts of the health-care field or in the company.
Acadian created the EMT Academy to address that issue and had been closing the gap between the company’s staffing and its goals for staffing before the 2005 storm season, he said.
Judice said Acadian hires about 500 people a year and is about 50 paramedics and 34 basic EMTs short of where it wants to be.
Anyone interested in signing up can call (866) 459-3500.