JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas. –
Air Force firefighters from several military installations across the United States will be certified as Emergency Medical Technician Instructors through an emergency management services course at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Oct. 15-19.
The course is a part of the Air Force Fire Chief’s recent directive for AF firefighters to perform to the emergency medical technician level, and will enable the graduates to provide both refresher and initial training to certify others as EMTs.
“This course is extremely important for the Air Force,” said Master Sgt. Richard Carvajal, Air Force Medical Operations Agency EMS operations manager. “Emergencies are never going away, and it’s critical that our firefighters can prevent delays in patient care during a first response situation. This course exponentially increases our capabilities because of all of the students here can teach their own courses.”
The course has been designed to meet the national guidelines for educating EMS instructors. The course will fine tune the student’s skills for emergency medical situations and show them how to become site coordinators for their units, tracking all of their assigned firefighters EMT certifications, Carvajal said.
“Emergency medical responses are the most common situations we run into,” said Robert Conklin, an Air Force fire and EMS instructor trainer. “So it makes sense to try to get our personnel to the highest level we can in dealing with these situations. It also makes sense to try to certify instructors at each unit so we don’t have to fly someone in every time anyone needs a refresher on their certificate.”