URI EMS receives award for excellence on campus

03/26/09 - The University of Rhode Island volunteer Emergency Medical Services' efforts at self-improvement have paid off.At the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation's annual conference, held earlier this month in Washington, D.C., URI EMS was awarded a "Striving for Excellence in Campus EMS" honor.

NCEMSF is a nonprofit membership organization that works to promote the development of campus-based emergency response programs.

The "Striving for Excellence" honor is part of the NCEMSF's recognition program of the same name in which member programs submit self-evaluations based on staffing levels, adherence to regional EMS accreditation requirements, vehicle and equipment quality and written operating procedures, among other criteria.

URI EMS Chief Shad U. Ahmed referred to the recognition, which stands for a three-year period, as a form of accreditation and the highest available from NCEMSF.

"It's a good validation of the tremendous effort we've taken for the last several years here to professionalize and just to voluntarily meet higher standards," Ahmed said. "It definitely feels like all the effort that we've put into it, all the work we've done, is worth something."

URI EMS was a much smaller organization when Ahmed joined the program nine years ago as a volunteer.

"When I first started we were not 24/7/365, we relied on the town services to cover us during academic breaks and our call volume was pretty low," Ahmed said.

Today, URI EMS is open and fully staffed all day, every day of the year and handles roughly 1,000 calls per year on campus and in the surrounding community, Ahmed said.

The NCEMSF named Ahmed "Collegiate EMS Provider of the Year" in 2008, but the chief was quick to attribute the program's success to group effort.

"The unique thing about our organization is that it's not just made up of one person, and I don't just say that, it's really true," Ahmed said. "We all kind of run this place together and it really is a true team effort and that's something that you don't really see sometimes at other places."

Amy Clough, a junior nursing major and second-year EMS volunteer offered a similar picture, describing the program as "one big family."

Clough, who said she joined for the medical experience and to get involved on campus, said she was pleased with the award.

"I'm glad to be a part of an organization that got recognized for something so great," she said.

With the exception of command personnel, the program is staffed entirely by a volunteer force numbering between 70 and 100 members during the school year, and 30 to 40 during the rest of the year.

Volunteers come from both the student body and the surrounding community, and anyone can join regardless of experience or major, Ahmed said. The program provides necessary training for all volunteers.

Senior nursing major Emily Paul, a corpsman and administrative manager, has volunteered with the program for six years and praised the experience.

"It's a very gratifying experience to know that when someone needs you, they'll call you and you can rush to be [with] them and help them in every which way you can," she said.