Page 24 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2019

COASTNOTES
RED &LIGHTS
Jimmy Donlin and Johnathan Steele
SIRENS
MGCCC’s Emergency Medical Sciences programs offer fast-paced medical careers
story and photos courtesy of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Crystal Haynes
director. “But unlike most other careers in medicine, they are also attracted to working in a variety of locations, many times outdoors, with the very fast- paced, life-and-death scenarios found in the emergency medical services fields. They have to be problem solvers who can think on their feet and able to handle the physical and mental stress of the job. Every day is different, and your office is in people’s homes, on a roadway and in the back of a moving vehicle. It can be grueling, but most EMS professionals will agree that the job is very rewarding.”
MGCCC’s EMS programs are nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS professions.
Emergency Medical Sciences Program 228.896.2536 questions@mgccc.edu
Students in the Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) programs at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (MGCCC) have different reasons for wanting to be emergency medical technicians (EMT) and paramedics, but they all agree that helping people is the ultimate goal.
“My younger brother was murdered seven years ago,” paramedic Crystal Haynes said. “He died in my arms, and I could not do anything to save him. I vowed to honor him by going into a medical field. I love what I do, and I know that every life I help save is keeping another family from going through the pain my family went through.”
“After 10 years in the Marine Corps, few jobs gave me the same feeling of service to my country and community,” said Johnathan Steele, also a paramedic student. “I wanted to help. This career gives me the chance to do that and more.”
“I grew up hearing the stories of how my dad and his fellow firemen fought fires and saved lives,” Jimmy Donlin said. “I just knew that was something that I wanted to do.”
Haynes, Steele and Donlin are all students in the Paramedic program at the college’s Jefferson Davis Campus. They completed the EMT program earlier in their careers and work full time for either ambulance services
or fire departments while continuing their education. They will complete the Paramedic program and take their certification exams this summer.
MGCCC’s Emergency Medical Sciences programs train students in EMT Basic and Paramedics. While both EMTs and paramedics provide basic life-support care to sick and injured persons in
the field, paramedics are advanced- level providers of emergency care and can conduct more extensive patient care than EMTs. They are licensed to administer medication, perform and interpret electrocardiograms, perform endotracheal intubations, and use other complex biomedical equipment. The EMT program and certification are prerequisites for the more advanced Paramedic program.
“Students in both of these programs are drawn to this line of work because they like health care and want to help people,” said Dr. Ronald Morgan, EMS
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