The 911 call was for an unresponsive 15-month-old baby. When the ambulance doors swung open, Morganton senior Sophie L was among the crew responding. An emergency worker already on the scene rushed the child over to the certified technicians, who began their work, work that would ultimately save the baby’s life.

With so many trained hands fluttering about the child, Sophie remained on the edges, handing in  supplies and equipment as the EMTs called for them.

“It was so jarring, how quickly it all happens when you get there,” Sophie says. “The baby was so tiny on this adult stretcher. It was unconscious and the EMTs began doing all these things to it. It was really kind of scary to see.”

Sophie, who came to NCSSM-Morganton from Providence High School in Charlotte, had been training for moments like this. She and 10 other seniors at NCSSM-Morganton are part of a fall Emergency Medical Technician course for NCSSM-Morganton students offered through a partnership with neighboring Western Piedmont Community College.

The course is part of NCSSM’s Mentorship program, which places students in semester-long real-world experiences outside of NCSSM. And Sophie’s was about as real world as you can get. 

The EMT course originated three years ago as a Summer Mentorship experience. While it’s still part of NCSSM’s summer offerings, this year a new section was opened for enrollment during the academic year to accommodate growing student interest in the course. 

Collyn Gaffney, Instructor of Mentorship and Research at NCSSM’s Morganton campus, says the course is particularly relevant to many students as they have ambitions to go to medical school, which often has applicants with 150 or more hours of certified patient interaction before they even apply.

“The course is approximately 250 hours from beginning to end over the Fall Semester and an additional instructional period called January Term,” Gaffney says. The first half of the course is spent under the tutelage of WPCC faculty at their Foothills Higher Education Center, which has an ambulance, medical manikins, and a wide range of medical equipment typically used in emergency medicine situations. 

Forty-eight of the 250 total hours are clinical, meaning students are out of the classroom and on call at one of Burke County’s EMS stations where students finally get to apply the skills they’ve gained in class, as Sophie did. Students who successfully complete the course become eligible to take the state EMT certification test.

Due to the nature of EMS calls, course administrators and instructors make it clear to prospective participants and their parents that, at some point in the course, students will quite likely bear witness to unsettling situations. “This is not canned content,” Gaffney says. “It’s not standing by on the sidelines, and it’s not a TV show. Students riding in an ambulance, they’re doing patient assessments on scene, they’re checking vitals. It’s all done under the supervision of a certified EMS professional, but it is absolutely real-world in every way imaginable.” 

And it doesn’t always have a happy ending.

Sophie saw that. On one of her most recent calls, her team responded to an elderly person in apparent cardiac arrest. As the patient was rushed to the hospital, team members took turns administering chest compressions. Sophie’s mentor in the ambulance, who is called a student’s preceptor, turned to her and asked her if she was ready to assist.

“I said no,” Sophie says. “I was like, ‘I can’t do it. I’m scared I’ll mess something up.’ But my preceptor told me I was prepared and so I got over that fear and I did a round of CPR under his guidance and he said that I did it good.”

But sometimes, no level of medical care is enough to save a gravely ill or injured patient. Despite the best efforts of a whole team of dedicated lifesavers, the patient never regained consciousness. 

That’s heavy, heavy stuff for a 17-year-old to see. But thanks to her training, Sophie was able to approach those moments like a professional, separating the emotional from the practical so she could help assess the situation medically and apply her training.

“You have to stop thinking about it and stop being squeamish and just do what you can to help because it’s your duty,” Sophie says.

But not every emergency call is filled with the drama of a life hanging in the balance. Sometimes, as in AJ Thomas’s first experience, it’s a lonely and isolated elderly person who has no one to turn to.

AJ, a resident of Marshall who came to NCSSM-Morganton from Madison Early College High School, joined the EMT course to further pursue her career interests in medicine. When her first EMS call came, she didn’t know what to expect as she climbed into the back of the ambulance with her team for the first time.

“It was definitely surreal,” she says. “I was back there and I was just looking around and I was just so surprised because, you know, you don’t ever think you’re going to be in that kind of situation as a 17-year-old.”

The patient, AJ says, turned out to be “the sweetest elderly lady,” who just needed some help. “She’d been living alone for the longest time and she needed to be transported and set up with some social services. You often see the sensationalized part of what EMS is, but I got to go and help take care of a person who didn’t have anyone else looking after them and help them get the support they needed. I got to help give her that human connection.”

The EMT course, given the hours required and the gravity of the situations experienced, is perhaps one of the most challenging opportunities at NCSSM. And perhaps one of the most rewarding as well.

“I keep saying it, but it really is surreal,” AJ says. “I mean, I’m 17-years-old, and one minute I’m talking about and training for and maybe even seeing these traumatic, horrific scenarios, and then, you know, I go to cheer practice right after. There’s definitely a juxtaposition there. But it has made me more aware of my surroundings, and more appreciative of all the things I have. I’m just so grateful to have the privilege of being able to treat people and help take care of the people around me in my community. I really love it.”

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