By Rachel Hawkins, NDG Contributing Writer
Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) students with a passion for fire safety, and medical, will have the opportunity to gain experience through a new partnership with the City of Irving.
The resolution presented to the Irving City Council was Approving an educational service agreement between the City of Irving and Dallas County Community College District on behalf of Brookhaven College and El Centro College for Emergency medical services student internships with the Irving Fire Department, was approved during the Irving City Council meeting on June 20. This agreement will be a five-year term, which will last from June 6, 2019, to June 5, 2024.
There is no such thing as a holiday from emergencies, leading to an ever growing need for qualified emergency and healthcare professionals. Duty-days, in this case, the student’s assigned rotation-day, is a commitment to provide a necessary public service, in exchange for in the field life training.
According to the DCCCD colleges policies, the EMS Program participants at no time during a clinical or internship can be part of the regularly assigned staff at a clinical site or an ambulance vehicle. In other words, they are not replacing trained paid staff; this is an unpaid teaching opportunity.
The hospital minimum clinical assignment hours for EMT-P is 288 hours in eight to 12-hour shifts. The MICU internship minimum clinical assignment hours is 264 hours in 24-hour shifts on “every third day” rotating schedule.
To complete this program, students must complete all clinical experiences, hospital, and MICU within the designated time-frame for their class. Read more about the Emergency Medical Services program at Brookhaven here.
