LINN — Osage Ambulance District has been an authorized EMS training site for Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) courses for over 15 years. Due to state restrictions, locations wanting to teach more advanced programs, such as the Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) or Paramedic course, must be aligned with a division of higher education such as a college or university.

With the ever-increasing shortage of paramedics, talks began in 2022 between EMS Chief Josh Krull and many area partners in attempts to increase the training center abilities at the ambulance district. Rural EMS services like Osage County usually feel the pressure of paramedic shortages before larger, more urban agencies. One could argue that in rural areas, where transport times could easily exceed an hour, AEMT’s and Paramedics are needed more urgently.

Krull believes that the advanced EMT level is part of the practical solution for rural areas to ensure patients are getting access to proper prehospital care in situations when having a paramedic on every ambulance is not possible. Talks eventually led to meetings with University Hospital in Columbia and its EMS Education Division. The goal was to establish a paramedic program, and, once it was running, to add the advanced mid-level AEMT course.

Currently, Missouri requires either an EMT, AEMT, or Paramedic license to work on a ground ambulance. Registered nurses in some instances are also approved prehospital providers.

AEMTs are able to handle a wide variety of medical and trauma situations with emphasis on calls requiring early advanced life support intervention.

To make the training center successful, Kelly Johnson, a highly experienced and well-respected EMS instructor, was hired to lead the programs.

In making history, the first group of Osage Ambulance District Paramedic students are nearing the end of their program. All students are in the clinical phase, which means they are weeks away from taking state and national registry exams to become licensed paramedics. AEMT students are in their final phase of clinicals, with one student already completing those and becoming certified.

These students are a mixture of Osage EMS employees and those of surrounding agencies.

Without the training center at OAD, students would have to travel to Union, St. Louis, Columbia, or Springfield.