Northwest College looks to add new paramedic program

Posted 10/24/19

At its meeting in Gillette this week, the Wyoming Community College Commission will consider a proposal for a new paramedic program at Northwest College. The associate’s of applied science in …

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Northwest College looks to add new paramedic program

Nursing student Andrew Smith uses a stethoscope on a patient simulator at Northwest College. The simulator responds to questions, mimics symptoms, and replicates emergencies for the students to react to. NWC is on the verge of adding a new paramedicine program.

Tribune photo by Kevin Killough

Nursing students Marcello Souza, Andrew Smith, Lindsay Olsen, and Landon George examine vitals on a monitor. The face of the simulation patient is based on the Lady of the Seine, an unidentified female who was pulled from the Seine River in France in the 1880s. Her death mask became world famous.

Tribune photo by Kevin Killough

Posted Thursday, October 24, 2019 10:25 am

By Kevin Killough

At its meeting in Gillette this week, the Wyoming Community College Commission will consider a proposal for a new paramedic program at Northwest College. The associate’s of applied science in paramedicine will be a combination of online and face-to-face labs and clinics to train EMTs to become paramedics.

“The community has really encouraged us to expand our offerings for EMTs who want to advance their careers,” explained Marneé Crawford, director of nursing for NWC. “It’s really driven by the communties we serve.”

The four-semester program will also provide training in wilderness medicine to fit the rural characteristics of some emergencies in the area, which will better facilitate job placement for those graduates who want to stay in the area.

“They’ll have some unique skills,” Crawford said.

The NWC Board of Trustees already approved the program. Assuming the WCCC grants its approval today (Thursday), the college will still need to get federal accreditation before it can be offered to students. But if all goes as planned, NWC’s first paramedic cohort will begin in fall 2020.

Currently EMTs have to go to Casper or Laramie to get their paramedic certification, and the need for paramedics is expected to increase 15 percent above the average for other industries, by 2026. In Wyoming, the need for paramedics is expected to increase by 7 percent.

The program will follow other new offerings in NWC’s nursing department: Next spring, the college will begin offering a registered nursing certificate at its Cody Center.

Eight students will be accepted into the program and will begin their course of study in January; the deadline to apply is Nov. 1. In addition, two LPN-to-RN students will be accepted into the cohort and will begin the program in spring 2021.

The RN program, like the paramedic program, will be a hybrid of online and in-person education for lab at the Cody Center, as well as for clinical experiences that will be scheduled in the region at various healthcare facilities.

The programs are also designed to accommodate the full-time working schedule of adult students, some of which are also raising children.

In addition to considering NWC’s proposal to offer an associate’s degree in paramedicine, the Wyoming Community College Commission will also consider a request from college officials to offer a bachelor of applied science in professional studies. It’s a new four-year degree that NWC leaders hope to also begin offering in the fall 2020 semester.