News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County is the first Upper Cumberland ambulance service to offer an in-house EMT-Basic training class.
Putnam County EMS Training Major Billy Price said Putnam County is able to offer this training because of county population. Price said before changes to state rules anyone wanting to be an EMT had to take the course through a community college.
“If you’re looking for a job where you’ll have fulfillment, EMS is definitely a great way to go,” Price said. “Because it is a very fulfilling job whenever you go home at the end of the day and you know that you’ve done something to help the people of your community.”
Price said this training provides assessment skills like bleeding control, CPR and medication needs. Price said there are three price levels for training, the cheapest being for people willing to contract with Putnam County.
He said to signup or get more details, people can reach out by phone, email or simply come by the Ambulance Services building at 700 County Services Drive.
“Then you can go on from there and get your advanced EMT where you learn more medications,” Price said. “Some more building on your assessment skills. Starting IV’s and then you can go on from there onto your paramedic where it’s a lot of assessment in-depth and more medications and more treatments.”
Price said he hopes having this class available will open more doors, without requiring candidates to go the college route.
“It’s very difficult to get people involved,” Price said. “It seems like it gets worse every year. One of the pay options that they have is to come on board and contract to work for Putnam County. We’ll get you trained up and let you do the agility and hopefully get you right in the door here.”
Price said that the three pay levels include:
$600 for contracting with Putnam County
$1100 for current county fire or rescue squad members who are sponsored
$19000 for out of county, not contracting with Putnam County
The deadline to signup is June 1 and the first training begins on June 21. Price said he can be reached at bprice@putnamcountytn.gov or by phone at (931) 525-2121.
