EMS Training Coordinator Serves Public, Profession
Posted on Friday, February 13th, 2015
EMS TRAINING COORDINATOR
Natasha West, Paramedic
EMS Training Coordinator
Certificates on the wall of her office reveal much about Natasha West's career here since 2008.
"Coworker of the Year for Mercy Health/Love County," reads an award from 2009. "Outstanding Service and Excellence in EMS Education," reads another, from 2012.
West, a Paramedic, is fulltime Training Coordinator for Love County EMS. Her students range from the general public to hospital clinical staff and current and aspiring EMTs and Paramedics.
Scholarships and discounts are available to Love County residents. The complete list of Training Center courses is shown on the Internet at www.lovecountyems.com or by calling the hospital at 276-3347.
Classes go on year round in the modern classrooms and videoconferencing facilities at ambulance Station 1, Marietta, and Station 2, WinStar Casino.West is assisted by four adjunct instructors.
Her specialty is skills training in lifesaving procedures as they apply to adults and children.
Using lifelike manikins and appropriate equipment, participants practice AEDs (which deliver a shock to restart the heart in cases of sudden cardiac arrest), airway management, intubation, intravenous and medication administration, patient immobilization and extraction, vital signs monitoring, and more.
"One of our short courses for the general public is four hours in CPR (chest compressions when someone's breathing or heartbeat has stopped). Students gain instant understanding. They can immediately apply what they learned out in the community."
West invites local schools, businesses, and neighborhoods to contact her for personalized CPR, AED, and First Aid training for their group.
Love County EMS also is a certified American Heart Association Training Center. This gives West the responsibility for validating the credentials of trainers and the test results of students in AHA "Heartsaver" courses offered at hospitals and other training centers in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas.
West is a graduate of the National Association of EMS Educators Program. She holds an associate's degree in allied health from Grayson County College in 2005.