LANSING, Mich. — In downtown Lansing on the campus of Lansing Community College, students in the paramedics program are working hard and learning all about providing medical care to people who need it.
“Some of the skills that paramedics can form and perform in the field are intubation, putting a tube in someone's airway in order to control their breathing, we can give all kinds of different medications, including cardiac medications," said LCC lead faculty for simulations and skills Angela Kohls.
She says the program teaches EMT basics to become a paramedic.
"They take a year of cardiology pharmacology, simulations and skills, and then, they also have third rides and clinicals within the hospitals," Kohl said. “We have our simulation mannequins can or as lifelike as we can make, we can get."
You can also give them a pulse, and they can breathe, moan and scream like a person would out in the field.
This program is pretty cool, but this isn't your average class. It's a special class because, for the first time in LCC’s history, it’s an all female EMS class.
“We have had an all-female paramedic cohort," Kohl says. "This is my first year as a lead instructor, so to me, it's a little extra special.”
EMS has been a field that has been dominated by men, but more females are making a difference.
“We're seeing a lot more females come into the profession and have a lot of success in it," Kohls said.
And there are materials now that enable women to do exactly what men do on the job.
For paramedic students like Liz Callahan and Olivia Hoover, this class has been an adventure.
"A lot of us didn't think it was going to be possible for us to go through paramedic because most of us work full time on an ambulance," Hoover said.
And learning all the different skills has been exciting.
"All the information about the human body and sort of all the pieces that go into helping people when they're at their worst," Callahan said.
Next Wednesday, these ladies along with their classmates will walk across a stage and will make a mark that will go down in LCC's history forever.
“The reward is going to be even better, actually. I mean, we're changing the career field at this point in time," Hoover said
And to all the little girls out there, make sure you dream big.
"Don't let a male dominated career field influenced you to not go after your dreams. We do this on a regular basis," Hoover said.
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