CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
After receiving a $250,000 Texas Reskilling and Upskilling Through Education (TRUE) grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Del Mar College will be able to certify dozens of students as emergency medical responders, or EMRs.
This grant will allow students interested in becoming EMR certified to take the six-month Emergency Medical Responder and Health Care Program at no charge.
Associate Vice President of Continuing Education and Off-Campus programs at Del Mar, Leonard Rivera said this grant will provide an accessible education to those who may not typically be able to afford that certification.
"It will provide individuals who want to enter EKG and EMR, which is the emergency medical responder career pathway, which is in high demand in the Coastal Bend area," Rivera said. "It offers them, at no cost, tuition and supplies, uniforms, testing fees. This will cover tuition for up to 80 students. They go through the program and within 16 weeks they get their credential."
Rivera added that this will provide an abundance of opportunity for students looking to start their medical career.
"And what great about this, at that point in time, they have the option to be admitted into our EMT program," he said. "That also offers other career opportunities where they can work in hospitals and do triage.”
According to Rivera, those students who become EMR certified could later choose to become an EMT or paramedic.
Fire Chief Brandon Wade said the program might help add more first responders to forces like the Corpus Christi Fire Department.
"When you have the emergency response program that kind of starts the initial training, they start recognizing being a paramedic is a career choice, being a firefighter is a career choice. For us, it maybe expands the opportunity for recruitment," Wade said,
Wade said Del Mar students will be able to use what they learned not only on duty, but off duty as well.
“You may be at a movie, and something occurs. You're able to utilize that training and that maybe recognizing something like a heart attack, like a diabetic emergency," he said. "Having 80 more people that are trained maybe just to recognize when somebody needs some medical assistance, that's a great thing to have in our community."
Applications for the Emergency Medical Responder and Health Care Program can be found here.
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