Some information for those who are considering joining the Christiansburg Rescue Squad.

If you are interested in participating in the Christiansburg Rescue Squad, please keep in mind that it is not simply people that are needed (there is a membership drive underway). It is people willing to make a commitment of time in training and in doing the job. To find out more about what opportunities exist where you can make a difference, try checking out some of these sources of information.

Title 12 of the Virginia Administrative Code lays the foundation for Emergency Medical Services within the Department of Health.

Title 32.1-111.1 is the beginning of the Code of Virginia providing the guidelines through legislation that serve to implement the Virginia Administrative Code.

There are 3 websites available to provide information on the Christiansburg Rescue Squad:

• Christiansburg Rescue Squad : on Christiansburg’s website — http://www.christiansburgrs.org/main/index_c.php?fh=CRS
• Virginia Depart of Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) — http://www.vdh.state.va.us/oems/
• Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads (VAVRS) — http://www.vavrs.com/

Each of these offers valuable resources for citizens and for active participants in the organization. However, there are some areas of overlap which can be pretty confusing as numbers do not always match up. In part, I believe that is due to lag time in getting data updated into the different systems. For the purposes of residents, I hope that the Town information is that which is most likely to be correct. This only concerns who is a member though, it gives no information as to the certification/training of each member. That information has to be obtained from other sources.

Although not an actual department of the Town, you can find information on the Town website. The Christiansburg Rescue Squad website offers a history of the rescue squad, a full page dedicated to the Captain, list of members, membership information, information on the Junior Crew, Fundraising activities, and contact information.

Anyone considering joining the Squad should definitely take the time to check out the website of the Office of Emergency Medical Services. There is a wealth of information available including the history, and a list of terms used with definitions. Education, Training, and Certification information including classes required for certification and for maintaining that certification. Some stats are available but tend to be overall for the State with out much in the way of local areas.

• Virginia offers 3 training levels for Basic Level EMS Programs
  • EMS First Responder (40 hours minimum training)
  • EMT Basic (121 hours minimum training with 111 hrs. classroom and 10 hrs. Clinical/Field rotations)
  • EMS First Responder to EMT-Basic Bridge (Provides for those with First Responder Certification to opt out for select courses in the EMT-Basic program to complete EMT-Basic certification)
• Virginia offers 8 training levels for Advanced Level EMS Programs. The training hours are for each specific level and in order to progress you must have an EMT-Basic certification first. (see the Training Catalog for extensive details).
  • EMT Enhanced (80 hrs instruction and 48 hrs. clinical rotation at minimum)
  • EMT Intermediate (mid-level pre-hospital advanced life support; 272 hrs instruction and 68 hours clinical rotations at minimum)
  • EMT Paramedic (800-1200 hours of instruction with a minimum of 400 of those hours in clinical rotations)
  • EMT Enhanced to EMT Intermediate Bridge
  • EMT Intermediate to EMT Paramedic Bridge
  • Registered Nurse to Paramedic Bridge Program (120 hrs classroom with 136 hrs clinical rotations)
  • EMT Shock Trauma to EMT Enhanced Transition
  • EMT Cardiac to EMT Intermediate Transition

This is but a very small sample of the information available on this great resource. Definitions are provided in one document “Specific Designated Emergency Agency” help to clear up misconceptions concerning the more generic term that gets bounced around “response time”.There are specific standards that apply to various section of the call such as: citizen call received by dispatcher, dispatcher notifies unit, unit acknowledges they are responding, arrival of the unit on scene, time en-route to medical facility, time arrived a medical facility, time call is completed and unit is ready for another call. If you are going to discuss these times, you really need to know the difference between them and which one applies to your discussion.

VAVRS – The Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc was established as a support system for Volunteer Rescue Squads among the benefits of a rescue squad being a member (which Christiansburg is one) are:

• Training at the local agency at no cost
• Instructor trainer programs to develop your own local instructors
• Peer group to share ideas
• Legislative committee for lobbying the General Assembly
• A VAVRS Death Benefits Plan
• Annual Convention
• District Meetings
• Competitions

Some of the Classes that are currently offered via VAVRS are:

• Basic and Light Duty Rescue Technician
• Basic Rescue Technician
• Basic Rescue Technician II
• Cave Rescue
• Emergency Vehicle Operator
• Farm Machinery Extrication
• Hazardous Materials First Responder Awareness
• HTR School Bus Rescue
• Infectious Disease Control
• Search and Rescue
• Introduction to Swift Water Rescue
• Swift Water Rescue
• Vehicle Rescue Awareness
• Vehicle Rescue Awareness and Operations
• Vertical Rescue (Rescue Tech Level II)
• Advanced Vertical Rescue (Rescue Tech Level III)

All three of these sites contain information on members of the Christiansburg Rescue Squad training. Unfortunately, it is not always the same:) So, here in a condensed format is what I have found thus far in comparing some of the basic data from those sources:

• Table Notes:
• General Members: 4 of those with EMT B show expired certification.
• General Members: 3 of those with EMT-B will expire on 8/31/10
• Associate Members none expired
• On the Virginia EMS website another 14 are listed with EMT Certifications that are not found of the Town’s roster. Of that 14, 2 are expired.
• VAVRS not on Town List: 2 of the 14 EMT-B show expired
• EMS Not on Town none expired