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Tri-State Ambulance has donated one of its retired ambulances to the program.
It will be Western’s first operable ambulance, said Deb Slaby, EMS instructor and program head of Western’s Emergency Medical Services Department.
Western’s emergency medical technician and paramedic students currently train using the back end of an ambulance. It is a stationary box, which primarily allows students to practice moving stretchers in and out, Slaby said.
The new ambulance will give students a variety of new opportunities to learn.
They can practice driving the vehicle, provide simulated patient care in a moving ambulance and gain a patients’ perspective in transports, said Matt Zavadsky, director of Tri-State Ambulance.
“EMTs and paramedics spend a great deal of their time in the back of an ambulance,” Slaby said.
“If we can create an environment close to what they’ll be doing in their career, it adds realism to the educational experience.”
Tri-State buys two ambulances each year and regularly retires older vehicles to keep its fleet at 13, Zavadsky said.
In the past, Tri-State has donated retired ambulances to local organizations, and this is the first time Tri-State has given one for training, he said.
Western’s ambulance will have the Tri-State decals changed to read Western Technical College so the training ambulance will not be confused with a “regular” one, Zavadsky said.
