ACC Offers Life-Saving Careers for Central Texas

The following article is in honor of National Preparedness Month celebrated across the nation in September and ACC’s Emergency Preparedness Week, Sept. 6-9. It spotlights emergency responders who get their training at ACC before they go on to save lives.

When most students go to class, they don’t expect to crawl through tight spaces, feel the heat of an explosion, or save a life. For Sarah Blaine, it’s all a part of the syllabus.

“You have to be ready for anything,” says Blaine, who is studying at ACC to be a paramedic. “It truly puts you in the emergency mindset when you’re experiencing the simulation labs, especially when you’re practicing outside in the 100 degree heat.”

Blaine recently completed the “EMS Operations” course (EMSP 3338) where she’s handled disaster management curriculum — practicing how to decontaminate people exposed to hazardous material or familiarizing herself with a water evacuation. In summer 2012, she will join the ranks of new paramedics out in the field.

ACC educates hundreds of first responders. In fact, the majority of area paramedics, firefighters, nurses, and police officers likely got their start at ACC. Nationally, nearly 80 percent of first responders and 59 percent of new nurses train at community colleges, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

“The training of medical service providers, including first responders is a key part of our regional mission,” says Mike Midgley, vice president of instruction, Workforce Education & Business Development. “The college is proud to be the primary regional training provider for first responders and is also very proud of the quality of the health professionals trained here.”

ACC student Trey Hughes will join the ranks of firefighter soon, thanks to ACC. Hughes recently completed the college’s EMT-Basic course so he can enter the ACC Fire Academy this fall. This 16-week entry-level program graduated 61 new firefighters last fall and spring.

“I’m a risk taker, and I definitely wanted to get into an active service field,” says Hughes. “ACC is getting me well-prepared to become a first responder. I’ve been through several different real-life experiences including the emergency room and labor-and-delivery with my training.”

While hands-on experience prepares students, licensing and certification are the critical steps to getting hired. And that’s where ACC stands out.

The Emergency Services Professions Program had a 100 percent pass rate for ACC EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, and Paramedic graduates who took the National Registry exams.

The Fire Academy had a 99 percent pass rate for graduates who took the Texas Commission on Fire Protection state certification exam.

The Associate Degree Nursing Program had a 97.8 percent pass rate for the 272 graduates who took the NCLEX licensing exam to become a registered nurse.

The Criminal Justice Program experienced a three-year, 100 percent pass rate for every graduate who took the basic peace officer examination administered by the Texas Commission for Law Enforcement Standards of Education.

One of those new peace officers is Elizabeth Sommerville, who was working as a Travis County corrections officer when she came to ACC to complete her peace officer certification. She became certified in May.

“ACC has the best training because the professors have been out there. They’ve done it, and they’ve seen it,” says Sommerville. “While sometimes other colleges have instructors who talk about theory, ACC instructors tell you real-life stories about what they’ve experienced and how to react.”

ADN Nursing Professor Gwenn Scott says many of her students want absolute solutions to problems they could face, but things are always more complicated in first responder situations.

“They sometimes want black and white answers, but in life they have to be able to apply it,” says Scott. “Throughout our nursing classes we have to keep reinforcing the need to think. ‘Think about what’s going to kill the patient first and react to that before anything else.’ ”

From checking vital signs on fellow students to performing CPR on real-life patients in life-or-death situations, the first responder career fields at ACC are anything but slow paced.

“We often remind our graduates that their careers put them in the lives of people on the worst day of their life, the last day of their life, and the first day of their life,” Midgley says. “It’s a grave responsibility, and we take that training very seriously.”

To learn more about ACC’s first responder and other careers, visit austincc.edu/info.