Emergency Medical Technician

Class length: 145 hours

An emergency medical technician (EMT) is an emergency responder trained to provide emergency medical services (EMS) to the critically ill or injured. EMT's perform many more duties than in the past, and responds to many types of emergency calls. These calls include medical emergencies, hazardous materials exposures, childbirth, fires, rescues, trauma, and psychiatric emergencies. As an EMT you can volunteer or be paid while working for fire departments, commercial or volunteer ambulance services, governmental EMS services, hospitals, hospital based EMS services, or any combination of the above.The EMT class teaches the critical skills necessary for rapid response, initial patient assessment, patient treatment, patient immobilization, patientextrication and movement, and transportation. The goals of EMT interventions are to rapidly evaluate a patient’s condition, maintain adequate airway, breathing, and circulation, control external bleeding, prevent shock, and prevent further injury or disability while bringing the patient to the hospital for more definitive care.

Our program provides approximately 145 hours of training to the national standards curriculum and is approved by the State of Connecticut Office of Emergency Medical Services. The course includes about half lectures and half hands on skill training along with clinical observations in an ambulance and emergency room. The course covers anatomy and physiology, patient assessment, triage, airway management, oxygen therapy, treatment of bleeding, shock, cardiac arrest, fractures, general pharmacology, spinal injuries and other medical emergencies.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be eligible to take the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians examination for their initial EMT certification.