What’s happened:
At Area Career Center (ACC), the emergency medical technician (EMT) class taught by Ryan Cogdill kicked off the last stretch of the semester to help students learn new, life-saving techniques.
The EMT class is a second-year class for seniors. With a dual-credit program, students in this class will receive seven-and-a-half dual credits through Ivy Tech Community College.
Most students begin their journey in a health careers class as a junior and then have the option to move onto EMT or CNA training. The class gets to experience 40 clinical hours in an ambulance and the emergency room. In this class, they learn how to do everything you would need to know in the field, from stopping bleeding to stabilizing people for transportation.
It’s all about emergency medicine and how to react quickly and calmly. Roughly 20 skills are learned throughout this class, and the topics learned build upon each other over time.
Prior to the pandemic, the EMT class was able to ride along with some professional EMT personnel. Post pandemic, that is harder to do. Cogdill does his very best at keeping the class the same during the pandemic, even though that means cutting back on the ride along trips with a fellow EMT.
What’s coming up:
The culinary arts and hospitality program is expecting a former student back on December 13 to walk current students through a demonstration. The student currently attends the Michigan school of baking.
In this demonstration, the former student is going to be showing the culinary arts students how to make macarons. Instructor Darrick Tucker started teaching this class in January of this year. Being able to bring back former students is something the ACC loves to do.
In addition, former students love to come back and pass on knowledge they have either already learned in class or something new they learned in the field. The students that come back to share their knowledge with the current students not only help them grow but encourage the students to work even harder.
Knowing that former students are successful in the field makes them want to continue their education at the ACC and even bring in other recruits. This is a great way to showcase the skills students have learned and how they apply to the field the students plan on going into.
Teacher spotlight:
Teacher Ryan Cogdill has been teaching EMT classes for five years now. Prior to teaching, Cogdill worked as an EMT and as an emergency room tec.
Cogdill does a mixture of lecture and hands-on learning in his classroom, allowing for a variety of methods for learning the material. This class is a one-year program for seniors, and most students take a health careers class their junior year and then advance into this class.
With the help of Cogdill, students learn everything they need to know to take their EMT certification test, the NREMT.
“I love watching the student's expressions. Throughout class, I do not hide the good and the bad that they will see in EMS or the medical field in general,” said Cogdill. “Every student has a different reaction when they realize what they will be doing, typically fear and nervousness. After they complete their clinical shifts, though, almost every student is bitten by the emergency medicine bug, becoming hooked on the adrenaline rush that comes with emergency care.”
Cogdill also discussed how he loves seeing students grow from the initial fear and uncertainty, to eventually appreciating all the exciting aspects of the profession.
“I love when I watch a student who has had a look of confusion suddenly light up when everything starts to click,” said Cogdill.
Student spotlight:
Jessica Moreno is a senior at Hammond Academy of Science and Technology (HAST). Moreno, who started her journey in health careers last year as a junior, chose EMT because she likes how they get to learn about a variety of things. In EMT, students get to use a lot of the same tools that professionals would use in the field, and that is something Moreno looks forward to.
“I like engineering, and in this class we get to work with a lot of medical supplies and machinery that we would see out there in the field,” Moreno said.
Not only does the class have real-world application, it also is interesting in that you are learning something new every day.
“My favorite part about this class is learning a little bit of everything. In an emergency, we have to know what to do and we need to be able to problem solve,” said Moreno. “We get to use our knowledge in a real-world setting.”
The amazing thing about the ACC is being able to have hands-on experience in professions like emergency medicine. There is a lot of knowledge that goes into the medical field and even more information goes into emergency medicine. You have to be able to think quickly and effectively to get a patient the proper medicine that they may need in a timely manner.
After high school, Moreno plans on going into the engineering field to study medical equipment.
“You would be surprised how much equipment we can fit on an ambulance,” Moreno said.