7 minute read
Real World Training
A few years ago, the City of Surprise approached the Dysart Unified School District Career and Technical Education Department about creating an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program for high school students. The Northwest Valley was rapidly growing and there was a need for more EMS staff in the area. The City of Surprise Fire-Medical staff agreed to teach the course through the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program.
For those unfamiliar with CTE, it’s similar to what was known as vocational or vo-tech in the past. CTE programs prepare students for careers in specific trades. Students are trained to enter the workforce with the academic and vocational skills needed to compete successfully in the job market. Currently, the Dysart Unified School District offers 19 CTE programs across its four high schools (Dysart High School, Shadow Ridge High School, Valley Vista High School, and Willow Canyon High School) campuses, and has nearly 5,000 students participating in CTE courses each year.
Programs currently offered include Automotive Technology, Culinary Arts, Digital Animation, Digital Photography, Education Professions, Emergency Medical Services, Engineering, Film and TV Production, Fire Science, Graphic Design, JROTC Army, Lab Assisting, Law Enforcement, Marketing, Nursing Services, Software and App Design, Sports Medicine, StageCraft Design and Production, and Technology Device Maintenance.
When the district and City of Surprise teamed up to create the course, there were some new challenges with getting it off the ground. The way it was envisioned, students would receive the same training as an adult going through the course. That adult-level course though, is quite challenging and has a significant attrition rate. Only about 60-70% of adults make it through the class.
“It’s extremely difficult,” said Larry Subervi, the EMS course instructor. “We’re talking about saving people’s lives on their worst day and that’s a tall task to ask of a grown adult, let alone a high school senior who has all the other things high school seniors are dealing with.”
“We’re pretty blunt with them,” Subervi continued. “I tell them I don’t care that they have prom coming up. I don’t care that they’re on the wrestling team. I don’t care that mom and dad are mad at them at home or they have to go on vacation. It doesn’t change the standard that we teach at because the public deserves our very best. It takes a unique student to be able to go through this, and they’ve done a really good job demonstrating that.”
Subervi is referring to the first EMS high school class, currently scheduled to graduate in May. The first cohort began in August of 2024 at more than 20 strong. It’s now down to 15, and amongst those is Leah Hall, a senior at Valley Vista High School, who was one of the first to sign up. Leah first took two years of the Fire Science CTE program at Valley Vista High School. When she heard about the start of an EMS program, she jumped at the chance.
“I’ve always been kind of interested in medical,” said Hall. “The aspect of the human body I think is really really interesting. It’s just all fascinating to me, and I think it would be fun to help people with that.”
Not only did Leah join but she also recruited four of her friends for the first cohort.
“I’m like, come join, come join,” she exclaimed. “I knew that they wanted to go into something medical too so I thought it would be a good way to help them too. I had a girl in my ceramic class whose mom is a nurse and her family has a couple of doctors so I was like, come join.”
That is a common theme with the EMS program. The majority of students are either interested in the medical field or the fire science field.
“Generally speaking, I would say the adult classes for EMT students are probably 75% firefighters versus 25% nurses,” said Subervi. “We’re probably a little bit flipped in the high school program, where we have more students that want to go into nursing or another healthcare field.”
Subervi said that the program is great for either pathway. Every firefighter has to be EMT certified, so it gives those students a leg up coming out of high school. Additionally, the skills learned in the EMT course can translate to nearly any medical field.
“The human body is the human body, whether you’re going into a nursing program or you’re going to be an anesthesiologist,” he said. “When you learn about the human body, you learn it at different levels but the anatomy and physiology that we’re learning here is the same foundation that they get in any other program. No matter what they are going to do in the healthcare field, this class will give them a leg up.”
For Leah, her pathway is calling her in a slightly different direction. She wants to be a combat medic in the military.
“I have a lot of family in the military,” she said. “My dad was in the Air Force as a military police officer, and both my grandpas served. Being able to do something that I’m fascinated with and something that I love in the military, I think that would be cool. It would give me structure but it would also give me that [feeling of] doing what I want to.”
Leah attributes that background and exposure to the military for allowing her to succeed in the EMS program so far, which she describes as hard…really hard.
“It’s a lot of coursework,” she said. “It’s a lot of information to take in so if you don’t find the right way to study for yourself then it’s a long, treacherous road. I take a lot of notes. I have a one subject notebook that is almost completely full and we’re almost three fourths of the way through the year. I have maybe thirty pages left—it’s a big notebook.”
Leah says that there’s a lot of memorization and medical terminology that requires constant repetition to ensure the student’s can remember it in their sleep. But the skill days help balance out the large academic portion of the course.
“Within the first two weeks we were CPR certified,” she said. “Some of us are Stop the Bleed certified. We’re learning how to do splints today. We got to check each other’s blood sugar levels.”
All of this hands-on training and academic work will allow the students coming out of this course and graduating high school the opportunity to take the national exam right away and become certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
“There’s a couple of steps,” said Subervi. “They have to finish this course and then pass the class final with a 75%. They have to pass their skills test with an 80%. Once they have those three checks, that opens the door for them to be able to take their national exam. If they pass that exam then they’re certified as EMTs.”
“As an 18 year old they can go work as an EMT on an ambulance,” he continued. “They could go work at a hospital as an EMT. There’s plenty of options that are open to them.”
As the first cohort of the EMS program gets ready to graduate, Leah said she would offer a few tips of advice to the next group of students coming into the program.
“I think this class is important because it’s almost like a trade school within a high school. It gives you that preview of the real life world without forcing you to step into it first. It gives you a cushion before getting shoved into the real world. And I would say, don’t be afraid of the coursework. The bonds you form with your classmates will really help you get through it.”
Subervi would echo those same sentiments while heaping praise on the high school students who are really taking on a huge challenge and preparing themselves for the future.
“We have a great group of students, and they have done a really good job,” he shared. “I think they are going to be effective when they get out there.”
