By Lauren Formosa
Grand Haven Tribune
HOLLAND, Mich. — Students in the Careerline Tech Center’s emergency medical services (EMS) program have a longstanding annual tradition to mark the end of the school year and put everything they have learned in the classroom to the test.
On May 6, groups of Ottawa County high school seniors could be found around Kirk Park practicing how to respond to simulated real-world rescue scenarios.
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Under the guidance of first responders from the Grand Haven Township Fire Department and Life EMS, as well as many CTC alumni, the groups rotated to multiple stations around the park that included resuscitating a patient on the beach, responding to a grill explosion, providing aid to someone having an allergic reaction, transporting someone experiencing chest pains down stairs, and more.
The program’s “beach rescue day” serves as the students’ capstone project for the year, according to Kim Schrader, EMS program director and instructor and certified EMT. For 20 years, the CTC students have been given the opportunity to take the skills they learned throughout the year and apply them to situations they could encounter as EMTs when responding to medical emergencies. Unlike running through scenarios in a controlled classroom environment, the park provides unique challenges for the EMS students to navigate, such as how to transport someone over difficult terrain or how to address bystanders on the scene.
“With the setting here at Kirk Park, we can actually be in a real-life setting and learn how that changes (emergency responses),” Schrader said. “The group at the beach is realizing that sand is an issue. How do we do this work in the sand and not get everybody covered in sand?
“This is their classroom today,” she added. “I don’t think there’s a better classroom than being out here.”
The annual event also gives the students a change to connect with CTC alumni and build professional relationships with local emergency responders.
Grand Haven Township Fire Chief Shawn Schrader said he has enjoyed supporting the CTC students through their partnership with the school and giving them a glimpse of the challenges they could run into when responding to real-life scenarios.
“(We’re) seeing how they do ... moving them from a classroom into an environment like this and helping them with anything we’ve learned from our past experience,” he said. “I think it can just make them better prepared to handle these type of calls.”
During their beach scenario, Jaycee Moore from Grand Haven High School took the lead for her group as they worked to perform CPR on a “patient” – in this case, a practice dummy – who experienced cardiac arrest and went limp after falling and hitting their head. She gave instructions to her classmates as they worked together to resuscitate the patient, move them onto a backboard, and safely transport them up a flight of stairs and away from the beach.
Moore explained that the beach rescue was her favorite scenario of the day, saying it was fun to take charge of the situation and see how well her team worked together during the lifesaving scenario.
“It was just really nice to see everyone knowing what to do,” Moore said. “Even though I was the lead and there was certain things I had to direct, people knew what they were doing. We knew we had to get this patient better and it just flew really nicely.”
Moore said she wants to become an EMT following her high school graduation, with the hopes of moving up to working as a paramedic.
While she was a bit nervous at the beginning of the day, Moore felt herself become more and more confident in her abilities as the day went on. This was especially true when she saw how everyone was working together using the knowledge they acquired this school year to practice helping people in need.
“I think that’s my biggest takeaway. Now if I go in for my interview and they ask me what to do for X, Y and Z, I’m going to have confidence in my answers,” she said. “I think that beach day just really drilled into me that this job is about confidence and knowing what to do, how to do it, when to do it. It’s been a great experience learning how confidence really makes a difference ... and that I should have confidence because I know what I’m doing.”
Working together on rescue scenarios they could encounter as EMTs helps reinforce the students’ skills and builds their confidence for what’s to come if they choose to enter the career field.
“A lot of times when they do their test outs at school, they have to test on their own to show that they have the skills,” Kim Schrader said. “Now, they’re working with a team and learning how that works. They’ve got the preceptors who may step in as a ... ambulance provide at that point learning how do we do this all together, how do we best take care of our patients, and how are we prepared to help whether we’re on duty or off duty.
“I think a lot of kids even surprise themselves (when they) realize we made it this far and look how much we’ve learned,” she continued. “We’ve been talking about beach day since the beginning of the year, and now we’re here.”
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