Uppal Nishant, Gondi Suhas
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
J Emerg Manag. 2019 Sep/Oct;17(5):380-384. doi: 10.5055/jem.2019.0436.
The authors propose that, through innovative and mutually beneficial partnerships between medical schools and local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies, medical students can help mitigate EMS shortages in areas across the country. These partnerships, which we have seen very early signs of in some places, would create channels by which medical students get their emergency medical technician certifications in the summer before matriculating and volunteer with the agency's ambulance service, either as an extracurricular clinical experience (which are very popular among medical students) or as a way to fulfill clinical or service requirements or earn elective credit. In the attached piece, the authors (1) establish, using data, that a key factor contributing to current and impending EMS shortages is a lack of certified personnel, and (2) propose why and how medical students could provide a novel source of additional volunteers for understaffed public ambulance services, explore some of the benefits and limitations of this proposal, and provide a road-map for how to form partnerships between medical schools and local EMS agencies.
作者们提出，通过医学院与当地紧急医疗服务（EMS）机构建立创新且互利的伙伴关系，医学生能够帮助缓解全国各地区的紧急医疗服务短缺问题。我们在一些地方已经看到了这些伙伴关系的早期迹象，它们将创建一些渠道，医学生可以在入学前的夏天获得紧急医疗技术员认证，并作为课外临床经验（这在医学生中非常受欢迎）或作为满足临床或服务要求或获得选修学分的一种方式，志愿参与该机构的救护车服务。在随附的文章中，作者们（1）利用数据确定，导致当前及即将出现的紧急医疗服务短缺的一个关键因素是缺乏认证人员，（2）提出医学生为何以及如何能为人员不足的公共救护车服务提供新的额外志愿者来源，探讨该提议的一些益处和局限性，并提供一份关于医学院与当地紧急医疗服务机构如何建立伙伴关系的路线图。
