The Ride of Their Lives

Taking vitals and administering oxygen to her first patient of the day, Melissa Grimesky was a little nervous as the ambulance raced to the hospital-with the help of the EMT crew on board, this Valley College student found out that she had the confidence and skills to do the job.

"I did a lot of hands-on things," said Grimesky, an 18-year-old fire science major, "things you're never going to learn in a textbook."

Going beyond the Scan-tron and No. 2 pencil, a 10-hour observational ride-along on an ambulance with professional EMTs is required of all Fire Tech 96 students to make the grade.

"At the ride-along you try to put what you have in your head down into your hands," said Dr. Alan Cowen, chair of the emergency services department. "[In] the classroom you get it in your brain and you practice your skills-then you go out and actually do it."

Fire Tech 96 (EMT-1 Basic) is a seven-unit, 128-hour course that teaches the knowledge, skills and abilities required to pass the National Registry EMT-1 Basic certification examination.

"The ride-along is the coup de grace or what caps the class," said Cowen. "It shows you a road map and you can go down as far as you want; you can use it as a stepping stone to become a nurse, paramedic or firefighter."

Students get an opportunity to be part of a health care team, checking patients' vitals bandaging patients, administering oxygen, get their medical history and doing assessments under the direction of EMTs, according to Cowen.

At Schaefer Ambulance Service in Van Nuys on a recent Friday, Valley student Karsten Greshko sat nervously in an easy chair with an open textbook in his lap waiting to go out on his first call.

That call came by noon-Greshko jumped from the pages and out into the real world.

"The key thing is you get to experience and use what you learn," said the 20-year-old. "Hands-on, you really learn it beyond the classroom."

Being able to interact with patients was the most important thing for Greshko, who's on the pathway to becoming a paramedic-the students are required to have contact with five patients during their ride-along. "You get to try the stuff you learn in class on real people."

The students also get the experience of working side-by-side with trained EMTs in a job where every patient is different and every day is new.

Oscar Romero, an EMT who has been on the job for 21 years said, "[It's] a real-life experience there is nothing like it." Romero adds, "I'm still learning, [it's] not the same day, everyday is a different scenario,"

That's something 21-year-old nursing major Cynthia Urena can now talk about with some authority. Urena admits to being anxious-she didn't know what to expect.

"I can't tell you how scared I was before-my heart started beating," said Urena about the first call she went on. "I felt like I just got off a rollercoaster."

She left the hospital with a feeling of satisfaction.

"You walk out of there with a feeling of accomplishment-that you made a difference in someone's life," said Urena. "It really completes the program."

Sitting in the back of a box ambulance-an emergency room on wheels-Hooman Zahedi, Schaefer's field supervisor said, "The rewarding feeling you get and gratitude from patients is just priceless."

Cowen said when students come back to class after they complete the ride-along they cannot wait to tell the class about their experience; they're proud and excited. "I never had [a student] that didn't say I'm addicted, I want more and this is for me."

"I'm proud of them all just to be able to go through this class-it's tough," said Cowen. "On a scale of difficulty of 1-to-10 it's a 10-and-a-half."