Recruitment ongoing challenge for rural ambulance services including Oklee

Choosing to be a volunteer emergency medical technician EMT is all about community service. Wanda Wright has been a member of the Oklee Ambulance for approx. 19 years which serves Red Lake, Pennington and Polk counties. “I enjoy giving to my community,” “We’re probably there helping a person on one of the worst days of their lives if they had to call an ambulance. Just knowing you can really help somebody is really good,” says Wright.
“Our community service isn’t an enticing selling point, for a commitment that requires volunteers to be on call 24 hours a day, complete more than 100 hours of training and potentially leave jobs and family gatherings at a moment’s notice,” continued Wright.
Small town Ambulance services in Minnesota— have closed in the past two years because they did not have enough volunteers to sustain the minimum requirements to have the service available 24/7, many others have merged or become substations of neighboring ambulance services. There are a number of ambulance services in Minnesota that are on the brink of no longer being sustainable, Oklee Ambulance is one of these.
Rising from need
Rural ambulance services have a storied history, rising out of a need for care — to the relief of other businesses. In many small communities funeral homes became receivers of calls for help. All of a sudden, people realized there was a service out there that if they were sick or injured, someone would come get them. Then the funeral home got too busy, so we started in our community ambulance services.
Since then, the services have become more regulated, requiring state licenses for operation and certification for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) and First Responders.
When it’s all said and done, a potential EMT volunteer may participate in 120 to 190 hours of training to become certified depending on if they have a medical background, they are also required to have yearly ongoing training.
Once training is completed, it’s time to be on-call.
Minnesota state law requires two EMTs to respond to each call no matter the time, unless the service has sought an emergency staff hardship variance to allow one EMT and one first responder to take the call instead.
EMT volunteers are on call 24 hours a day, which may have the potential to take them away from full time jobs.
It’s sticky situation in many of the small towns in northwest Minnesota where residents commute to other communities for work, leaving those working in town to cover shifts.
“I’m really thankful for a lot of employers in small towns that allow our people (to go) if their pagers go off,” says Wright.
Right now, Oklee Ambulance only has a handful of volunteers to cover such calls during the day and if there is no EMT’s around it will be requested that Fosston or Their River falls be contacted to transport the Patient which could take valuable time.
EMT’s will be expected to get to an ambulance garage within minutes of their pager going off. And will be paid only for runs they make and potentially encounter friends and neighbors on their calls.
“It’s a tough job to do, and it’s hard to stay in it for a long time. It’s an emotional job. You’re dealing with people in small communities. We’re dealing with people that we know, that we see every day on the street. They’re not strangers,” said Wright.
Looking forward
Recruitment isn’t a new issue for volunteer ambulance services. “I think we’re at that point where those of us who have been EMT’s, many, many years, we just do it because that’s how we provide services to our community, and we know that it is a vital part of the community to have people there to assist our families and friends in a time of need. Calling on neighboring communities to provide emergency transportation could cost our Friends and Family time, Time they may not have.
PLEASE HELP SAVE
OUR AMBULANCE
SERVICE!!!!
The Oklee Ambulance is offering a $500 incentive after completing the state required guidelines for an EMT and being an active member of the Oklee Ambulance for a 1 year period.
Oklee Ambulance is in dire need to get more EMT’s and First Responder volunteers to assist the communities of Oklee, Plummer and Brooks, If you are interested please contact Wanda Wright @ 218-796-5044 or Gin Berns @218-796-4545 leave a message if no answer and we will get back to you.
The Oklee Ambulance is offering a $500 incentive after completing the state required guidelines for an EMT and being an active member of the Oklee Ambulance for a 1 year period.