( WVHEPC ) and the West Virginia Community and Technical College System ( WVCTCS ).
“ New River Community and Technical College had some success using a smaller version of the mobile simulators and was able to bring some education out to rural communities ,” says Cynthia Persily , Ph . D ., vice president for health sciences with the WVHEPC and WVCTCS . “ So , when the governor decided to devote CARES funding to address the EMS workforce crisis , our informal task force , which included our agency , key legislators and governor ’ s office staff , decided to invest in larger and more sophisticated mobile ambulance simulators to bring education to where it is needed in our state .”
Along with this , the WVCTCS has funded free Emergency Medical Technician ( EMT ) training at 39 different sites across the state , has trained over 800 new EMTs and funded additional educational opportunities for current EMS personnel , including the areas of mental health first aid and geriatric emergency services .
“ The community and technical college system works every day to help address workforce needs in each region of our state through education and workforce partnerships ,” says Persily . “ We also partnered with and funded the University of Charleston initiative , which offered , free of charge , 300 EMS personnel with a 15-credit EMS leadership certificate program where they learned key skills to lead the workforce of the future . We also funded behavioral health providers in rural areas and underserved areas , as we know that in some areas where behavioral health providers are scarce , EMS experiences a high number of calls and transports for mental health issues .”
Having lost nearly 2,000 local EMS workers over the past three years , the mobile simulation units and the education they provide are working to fill the medical worker gap while also promising a brighter future for health care in the state of West Virginia and beyond .
“ By taking EMS education outside the classroom , we can expand our training into remote areas of West Virginia ,” says Geis . “ We have EMS students and providers all over the state , but some are located in rural areas that lack easy access to opportunities . With these mobile units , we can now bring the education to them .” •
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