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LaFayette Fire and EMS got a visit from some excited nursing students at Auburn University this week. As part of the continued partnership between the Auburn Rural Health Project and the city of Lafayette, four second-semester students got to ride along on an EMS rotation, learning about the prehospital clinical rotations. 

LFD Training Officer Gabe Rumfelt, who leads the students, described the program as an opportunity to get hands-on experience with “ground zero patients.” 

Many nursing students don’t know about all the things that happen to patients before they reach the emergency room. Kylie Reid, Katie Reed, Hannah Ray and Lauren Regner, the Auburn students, said that they were surprised by how much the paramedics have to do and how much equipment they have on hand. 

Unlike in a hospital rotation, the experience at LFD is a more one-on-one learning experience, Rumfelt said. 

Being in LaFayette, the students also have the unique opportunity to see what medical emergency response looks like in a rural setting. Many ground-zero patients struggle with rural disparities and a lack of healthcare literacy. 

“A big aspect that we take pride and joy in with all of us here is that we can have some lasting relationships with those patients, learn their medical histories, learn about their living circumstances,” Rumfelt said, “And we can hopefully put them in contact with resources and give them really good sound, clinically evidenced, education on their medicines.”

Another advantage to the program is introducing the students to skills that a paramedic needs in the field, like how to detect subtle changes in an EKG that you might not typically notice.

After 12 hours with the crew, students will have a chance to learn hands-on skills like IVs, intubations, compressions and EKG readings. But Rumfelt said, “Auburn’s done a great job with [the students] getting them well prepared. We’ve been pretty impressed by their clinical knowledge so early on.”

Rumfelt, who has experience training and teaching, said he has enjoyed getting to continue working with students. On one rotation, he said he got to see one of his lessons pay off in real-time with a group of students when a patient had those subtle changes in their EKG reading.

“I could see the lightbulb go off for them, and they said later that it made it a lot more real for them to have witnessed that firsthand,” he remembered.

The four nursing students agreed that they gained a new perspective on the EMT side of emergency response and how paramedics have to make sometimes difficult decisions under extreme circumstances. Ray said she hopes that the experience will help her make positive relationships with paramedics in the future when she begins working in the field. 

“I think it highlights how all of healthcare is a team. Everyone is vital,” Regner said “… You gotta do your job, but you gotta do it well, then someone else will take over. We’re all in it together, and everybody needs to do their job to save the life.” 

Rumfelt said the students are also learning to keep a close monitor on their patients and “to go the extra mile to advocate for a patient.” 

“If we can’t put our whole heart into it, why do it?” Rumfelt said. 

“We’re really fortunate to have Auburn University,” Rumfelt added. “Auburn University is involved in every county in the state of Alabama with an outreach program. And that means a lot here in a place like LaFayette, where we have limited resources but we have needs just like anybody else.”