EASLEY — The first Community Paramedic Training program in the state will be offered by Tri-County Technical College beginning Feb. 9 at the college’s Easley Campus.
The course will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Participants must have been employed as a paramedic with an agency for two years or more on a full- or part-time basis.
The 300-hour program exceeds the 225-hour minimum required by state guidelines, which calls for 100 instructive and 125 clinical hours of training. Tri-County’s program offers 100 hours of classroom training, 150 clinical hours and an additional 50 lab hours. The classes conclude May 26. The cost is $1795 plus books and test fee.
The College’s Community Paramedic Program (CPP) was approved by the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Advisory Board of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control at its Dec. 10 meeting. “Communities are expanding the role of paramedics to provide better, more cost-effective healthcare,” said Andrela Riley, healthcare director for Healthcare Excellence in the Corporate and Community Education Division at Tri-County Technical College.
Community Paramedic Training puts the paramedic in a preventative role as opposed to a reactionary role, said Chris Bowers, who is over the operations unit and a paramedic at Bowers Emergency Services in Easley.
“It changes and expands the mindset of the paramedic,” Bowers said. “The need for community paramedics is huge in the tri-county area because we are losing paramedics to upward mobility. Many are going back to school for advanced degrees to work as RNs and physicians’ assistants so the need is ongoing.”
Contact Andrela Riley at 646-1724 or ariley@tctc.edu for more information.