Southwest Michigan Community Ambulance Service has received a $330,000 grant to help pay for the training of new paramedics. Service Director Brian Scribner tells us the group partnered with Medic One to seek the funding from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Emergency Medical Services workforce grant program. He says ambulances services statewide has been struggling to have find adequate staff.
“The staffing crisis continues in the industry, and obviously, part of the solution is to offer more training and to remove hurdles for people who can’t afford that training,” Scribner said.
Scribner says common life issues often get in the way of someone getting EMS training. The grant helps address that.
“We are going to be able to pay for the tuition of eleven people to go to paramedic school. The classes have already started, and those eleven people will also be paid an hourly wage so they can afford to do this while they work.”
They’ll be paid $15 an hour during their training. Scribner says the new personnel are adults looking for a new career as well as students fresh out of school. Ambulance providers around the state sounded the alarm last year about a lack of staff, and the state responded with new grant programs. Scribner says while there’s been progress, there’s still more that could be done to support ambulance personnel. Southwest Michigan Community Ambulance Service serves communities in southern Berrien County.
