Recruit volunteer EMTs and medical responders
In many departments, medical calls are most of the work. Plenty of people who would never apply to fight fires will gladly train to help a neighbor in a medical emergency. If your department takes volunteers for medical calls, recruit them on their own terms.
Who to reach
- Students heading into health care. Pre-nursing, pre-med, paramedic and physician-assistant students need patient-care experience. Reach them through community colleges, nursing programs and high school health-career classes.
- People who already have the license. EMTs, nurses and medical assistants who live nearby, including people who moved from somewhere else and are not using their certification.
- Retirees and parents with daytime hours. Daytime coverage is often the hardest to fill.
- People who want to help but not fight fire. Say clearly that medical-only volunteering is an option.
What to tell them
- Which level you need: emergency medical responder, EMT, advanced EMT or paramedic, and whether you train people from scratch.
- The cost of training: whether the department pays for the course and the state certification.
- The time: shifts or on-call hours, and how many calls a volunteer can expect.
- Whether they need to fight fire: say plainly if medical-only volunteers are welcome.
- What it leads to: experience that counts toward nursing, paramedic and medical school applications, and toward paid EMS and fire jobs.
Keep them
- Give new EMTs time with experienced members on real calls, not just training.
- Help them keep their certification current: continuing education, and the department covering renewals if it can.
- Thank them in public. Name the people who ran the calls in your posts and newsletters.
Send them here
Our page for applicants explains medical volunteering and the license levels: volunteer as an EMT or medical responder. If your department is looking for EMS volunteers, say so on your FireDepartment.net page so it shows there too.
More ideas: how to recruit more volunteers.