Aurora Fire and UCHealth partner to train the next generation of paramedics

AURORA | Aurora firefighters are sharpening their life-saving medical skills through a first-of-its-kind partnership with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, practicing emergency care under the supervision of hospital staffers.

Part of becoming a firefighter is learning how to provide care in a medical emergency. Once they’ve become certified as emergency medical technicians, historically, Aurora firefighters have been expected to go on to earn their paramedic certification.

Firefighters who achieve this level of certification are permitted to use an arsenal of specialized equipment, medicines and procedures to save lives. On Thursday, a cohort that included several Aurora Fire Rescue firefighters drilled some of those advanced skills in a classroom at the Anschutz hospital.

Using anatomically-accurate dummies, firefighters took turns wrapping tourniquets around limbs and attaching breathing devices such as bag-valve masks. Many paramedic programs aren’t tailored to the demanding schedules of firefighters, unlike the Medical Education on the Delivery of Innovative Care program, which was set up so firefighters can attend on their off days. It’s also unique for being run out of a teaching hospital and medical school.

Bryan Guzman, a firefighter with Aurora Fire Rescue for the past five years, said firefighters wanting to take their medical skills to the next level have been challenged in the past by the conflicting demands of work and school.

As he practiced strapping a mask onto a dummy, he said he wanted to become a paramedic to continue his journey in firefighting that he began as a volunteer in Idaho.

“On top of being a firefighter, I wanted that extra level of care that I can provide to the community that I work for. And so the department offered to send us into this program, and I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely I want to go, let’s get this knocked out,’” he said. “This is also a hospital that we transport to a lot, so we’re familiar with this organization, and they’re familiar with us.”

One of the most important skills learned by paramedic students is how to help patients who can’t breathe for themselves, using tools such as breathing tubes, which must be carefully guided down a person’s throat.

Jena Ferguson, a first responder for more than 30 years and UCHealth’s director of prehospital education, described intubation as a “low-volume, high-acuity skill,” meaning a paramedic in the field may rarely have to perform the procedure, but when they do, it may be a matter of life and death.

For this reason, Ferguson said students are expected to practice intubation and other life-support tasks repeatedly, so they can provide care confidently while under pressure.

“We want them to be able to focus on the patient so that everything else that might be happening in the background fades away,” she said. “You’re only on scene for about 10 minutes, and there’s a lot to do in those 10 minutes.”

UCHealth’s MEDIC program was created in concert with Aurora Fire Rescue and the first class was designed with the schedules of firefighters in mind. Aurora pays for firefighters to receive the certification; in exchange, they hope to maintain an ample pool of skilled paramedics.

Firefighters in Aurora work 24-hour shifts, spending one full day on the job followed by two days off. The arrangement can be an obstacle to education for firefighters, who have to juggle their floating work days with regular classes.

“You’re working every third day, which if you look at a calendar is just a trainwreck,” said Aurora Fire Rescue commander Mark Hays. “We’ve sent people from our department just about everywhere to go to paramedic school.”

In cases where firefighters went to school on days when they would otherwise work, Hays said the agency also had to pay other firefighters to fill in. Eventually, the agency’s medical director reached out to staff at the University of Colorado Hospital, and about a year and a half ago, a group met to talk about setting up a paramedic school.

Marc Scherschel, UCHealth’s senior director of prehospital care, said the hospital saw an opportunity to expand its influence in the Aurora community and that MEDIC is the first program to have been designed in close cooperation with a public safety agency like Aurora fire.

“We always knew we had the ingredients to build something really kind of spectacular in the prehospital realm,” he said. “This is where we work and live, and the more we can do well in the community, the better off we all are.”

This spring, the first cohort of students, including Aurora Fire Rescue firefighters and Falck Rocky Mountain ambulance personnel, began their journey toward becoming paramedics. The cohort is scheduled to complete their training in early 2024.

The curriculum includes a combination of reading, lectures, hands-on practice and shadowing medical staffers at Anschutz. Scherschel said the experience in a hospital setting helps give paramedics a sense of how doctors continue care and what their decision-making process is like once a patient is handed off.

Hays said the firefighters in the program share the same work and rest days to simplify scheduling, with classes falling on the second rest day. He praised the program for appealing to students with different learning styles and focusing on making students better medical practitioners rather than just making sure they’re able to pass an exam.

“They have an internationally-recognized medical school. And so, like when they’re teaching cardiology, they wanted to have cardiologists teaching it, not just other paramedics,” Hays said. “They want to bring in the resources from across the region to really be able to build this educational platform and teach people as best as possible.”

A second class is planned to start in September. While this class won’t be structured around the schedule of AFR paramedics, Scherschel said the hospital hopes to continue partnering with local public safety agencies and modifying the uniquely flexible program to meet the needs of students.

“The partnership with Aurora fire is really important to us. And that program is moving forward very well. But the other side of it is it’s not just an Aurora fire program,” he said. “Tailoring it to Aurora was certainly the catalyst to get us started. However, that’s just the beginning.”