RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — For the second year in a row, the Rapid City Fire Department is offering an Advanced EMT class.
Now this course is accompanied by new training simulators and technology.
This year the class is being offered to firefighters from both Rapid City and neighboring communities.
“This unit behind me is an ambulance simulator and it allows us to do training inside a controlled environment where the instructors get to control what happens with it. This is a prop that was purchased through some funds that were provided through the state through a regional service grant,” EMS Division Chief Brent Long said.
These classes take place at Uptown Rapid Mall, a larger space for the training sessions.
“We’re either doing simulations or we’re in the lab doing skill. They are able to utilize this space a lot more and the experience that the students are having with having this space, it has added to their educational background,” EMS Program Director Captain Jason Reitz said.
“So this is basically the same size as one of our ambulances. There’s no windows in it, there’s no doors on it. So it’s going to allow staff and students to be able to interact with each other while they have a scenario going on,” Long said.
This class is also put through the unexpected, just as they will in the real world.
“We create some wild and crazy scenarios that they might only see once in their career. But we put them through those kinds of scenarios so that it’s not just the run-of-the-mill calls. And so they’re going to have to use their training, their knowledge base and their skills to mitigate those medical calls that they might see on the street while they’re all by themselves,” Reitz said.
This Advanced EMT class requires six weeks of in-house training and then two additional weeks out in the field.
The Rapid City Fire Department is planning on offering night and weekend classes to some of the surrounding fire stations across the Black Hills and Pennington County.
