JCC Offers Paramedic Certificate or Associates Degree

Jeannine T. Gomiela, director of the program, said the course is rigorous and time intensive and includes several hours in the classroom, laboratory, clinic and ambulance.

“The course work is ... heavy in the sciences — anatomy and physiology — and there’s a lot of practical application and critical thinking,” Ms. Gomiela said.
To become a paramedic takes two years — eight hours a week in the classroom and another eight to 16 hours a week in the field.

Adaptability is a key to success in the profession, Mr. Deavers and Mr. Hickey said.
“The way they tell you it should happen, it never happens that way,” Mr. Deavers said.
“You get people ... (who) can definitely be book smart; then they get out on the street and they can’t do a thing,” Mr. Hickey said.

The paramedic program tries to prepare students for that eventuality by putting them on the street with working paramedics and EMTs as much as possible.

Students will learn a skill, practice it in the lab and complete a test on it. A couple of weeks later, they’ll practice it in the field, Ms. Gomiela said.

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