Submitted by Clark Judge, KAA.
Eight months ago the Killingworth Ambulance Association posted a sign outside its Route 81 headquarters, urging persons interested in becoming EMTs to join. Today that call has been answered.
There are four new EMTs to emerge from the latest class, which isn’t unusual. But this is: They’re all female. In fact, it’s a first.
Furthermore, of the last five EMTs to join the KAA, all are female. Two are in their early 20s. One is a retired nurse. Another is a doctor. A third is Clinton’s assistant town clerk. One is from Deep River. Another is from Madison. The others are from Killingworth.
Nevertheless, as diverse as the group is, all have something in common: They completed the state-required 150 hours of classes and passed rigorous practical and written tests. Now, as EMTs, they’re eligible to ride on calls as “thirds,” or apprentices.
As of early May, all but one had.
“I was a little bit nervous,” said Jordan White, 20, of Deep River. “OK, I shouldn’t say ‘a little bit’ because I was real nervous. When I actually got the call and my radio started going off, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is actually happening. I’ve got to leave the house right now.’ ”
Which she did … a little too quickly.
“I ended up slamming my foot in the door because I was trying so hard to get in the car and go,” she said. “I was definitely nervous until I got in the ambulance. And then I was pretty good.”
Her story is repeated by others on first rides. They’re excited. They’re nervous. And they’re as eager to succeed as they are to learn.
“And that,” said Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz, “is the last hurdle.”
The first, of course, is deciding to volunteer, then sticking with a demanding course that last year ran twice a week from September through December. While heavy in instruction, there’s enough hands-on experience to give students an idea what’s in store once they’re certified.
“I felt like I went back to nursing school,” said Robbenhaar-Fretz, a member of the KAA board of directors. “I couldn’t believe how much knowledge they require of EMTs. I was astounded. I have a whole new appreciation for this.”
Mike Haaga, the KAA’s Chief of Service, and wife Marguerite, the association’s vice president, teach the course … as they have the past 15 years. When they started last September they had 11 students. When they finished in mid-December, four had passed, one hadn’t yet completed the course and another was waiting to take the written final.
Again, that is normal. Attrition is part of the process. Every year interested persons drop out as the EMT course continues, with one of this year’s additions — Lisa Barbour, who has grown children – conceding that she considered quitting more than once.
“Every week when I got out of here on Mondays,” she said, “I’d tell my kids, ‘What the heck did I get myself into?’ I also hadn’t been in school for lots of years. So coming back to school … and not having the medical knowledge … was difficult.”
Yet she always returned.
Haaga understands, mostly because he’s heard it … seen it … and experienced it for years as an instructor.
“You have a bad test, a bad day, a bad practical,” he said, “and you wonder: Why am I doing that? Especially at the volunteer level where it’s not their careers.
“But we just point out the fact that it’s not something to get excited about. We tell them that no matter what happens, we’re going to work with them as long as they want to be EMTs.”
And these women did. In fact, when all were asked how they reacted when told they passed their finals, their answers were identical.
They cried.
It doesn’t matter whether their tears were of joy or of relief. They knew what it meant: They had crossed the finish line.
“It was absolute elation,” said Killingworth’s Stephanie Nixon, 23, who became an EMT in September.
Including Nixon, the Killingworth Ambulance Association has grown from 15 to 20 EMTs. Haaga said the latest Killingworth class marks the first time he’s had a graduating group of women only, and he’s uncertain why. EMS tends to be a male-dominated field, so having an all-female class of EMTs – four of them to be exact – isn’t ordinary.
Nevertheless, he cautioned listeners not to make too much of it.
“It’s usually a 50-50 ratio, male-to-female,” he said, “so I don’t know why it’s like this. We opened it up to doctors and nurses and got one of each, and both happened to be female. I don’t know why it was that way. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it because it’s not. But I do know this: They’re working out great.”
