Emma Campbell gets her stuffed ladybug checked by Mandy Gerspacher during the EMS Open House on May 27. (Submitted photo/Becky Zimmer)

By Becky Zimmer

EMS Open House

Humboldt EMS celebrates paramedicine with community open house

May 28, 2023 | 1:00 PM

The Humboldt and District Ambulance bays were wide open this Saturday as everyone was invited to their open house in celebration of Paramedic Services Week.

The community event was one of the first times Humboldt EMS has been able to show off their facility since the COVID pandemic, said Derek Dagenais, supervisor and advanced care paramedic with Humboldt and District Ambulance, so getting to know the community again was a welcome thing.

“We’re a spoke in the wheel of healthcare and the emergency portion of healthcare, so it’s just important to get that out there to everyone.”

With many of the activities geared towards children, including teddy bear checkups, a colouring station, and first aid demonstrations, Dagenais said it is important that kids in the community know they are a safe person to come to in times of need. Being able to use 911 during a crisis and just being safe in the community, it is also important to teach them these skills while they’re young. Being a parent himself, Dagenais said it is surprising what messages get passed onto adults.

Call numbers have been on the rise lately, and with Humboldt being a central hub to many rural communities, Dagenais said they are dealing with a high volume of calls on a day-to-day basis, including 45 per cent of their calls being transfers to Saskatoon.

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Members of the Humboldt and District Ambulance were proud to welcome kids and adults to their open house on May 27 in celebration of Paramedic Services Week. (Submitted photo/Becky Zimmer)

With paramedic shortages across the province, Dagenais said they are lucky in Humboldt to be fully staffed but more are always welcome. With their current numbers, they are only one family situation or illness away from a short-staffed night for their three ambulances on call, and that is not an option, he said. They never spend a night with less than two ambulances fully staffed but being a 24-hour service, that can be difficult and has led to fatigue within their staff, let alone that being a common issue across the province.

“There are high rates of turnover just in paramedicine in general because it is a high stress job and the fatigue or people move to other areas of medicine. There’s some competing factors. We’re doing okay here, we want to do better.”

Ambulance services, including in Humboldt, are finding new ways to address staffing issues at their facilities.

Dagenais said they are looking into hiring primary care paramedic students to get them in the field faster, even hiring them before their school starts for hands-on learning with the emergency medical responder training. As well, Dagenais said they always have their eyes on homegrown talent since they will be more likely to stick around their hometowns for longer if not indefinitely.

“Everybody always goes home. They have a bit of a shelf life here as a paramedic, and then they move back home after a year or two, and that’s hard on our turnover. Now luckily, that’s probably only about 20 to 30 per cent of our staff, but it does happen.”

The Humboldt and District Ambulance continues to have a strong partnership with Humboldt’s fire and police services, said Dagenais, as well as the community paramedicine initiative with the Humboldt and District Hospital Complex. High call volumes has also meant time spent assisting hospital staff is only half of what it was at the beginning of the program.