Medical students ride with Abilene Fire Department

By Emily Peters in The Abilene Reporter-News
Holland Medical High School student Kristie Norton had just finished her tour of the fire station and was handed her very own box of rubber medical gloves when the alarm went off for her first emergency response call. Over the speaker, dispatch said someone was having a serious panic attack and needed assistance.

“You just jump in the truck and they turn the sirens on,” said Kristie, who rides along as part of her emergency care attendant course at Holland. “We started going really fast through the stoplights and all the cars pull over for you … This is not like an everyday class.”

When they arrived, the reality of being 17 years old in a serious situation set in. “At first, I was scared to touch the patient,” she said, so she stepped back and let the firemen take the patient’s blood pressure.

But she didn’t let that stunt her education. When she got back to the station to relax with the other firefighters before the next call, “they let me practice taking their vital signs until I felt comfortable,” she said.

Now, she said she’s ready for anything.

Kristie is one of 14 students at Abilene’s medical magnet school taking the emergency care attendant course.

“There are no clinical requirements for the certification, but to help the students relate what they are learning to ‘real world,’ I have them do at least three ride-outs with (the Abilene Fire Department),” said instructor Robyn George.
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