Taylor DeBaun has been on the team at Jackson Township Fire Department for two and a half years. He recently completed his paramedic license and was kind enough to talk to The Reporter about the training process and what his new skill set brings to the community.
DeBaun
“It all starts with filling out an application then going through a rigorous ‘try out’ period with mental and physical skills tests, from a TEAS standardized computer exam all the way to a hands-on scenario-based test,” DeBaun told The Reporter. “Then onto the interview board where you must present yourself in the best possible manner in front of the director and your future instructors as they decided whether or not you are ready and qualified for a spot as a future medic student.”
This application process takes three months. Of the 30 to 40 potential student candidates, only 20 are chosen to move onto the first semester of paramedic school.
For those who are selected, four semesters of rigorous education follow.
“Each semester you have an end-of-semester review, where you sit in front of that same ‘interview’ board and review with you, your academic grades, as well as, your skills and practices as a student paramedic in the field,” DeBaun said. “Each semester it gets more involved and you gain more responsibility as a student paramedic. By the time you reach the fourth semester you will have put in over 800 hours in field management of patients within the emergency department, ambulance ride outs, community outreach, OB rounds, heart centers, medical intensive care units, critical care teams, and other medical field sites. You will also have taken on over 1,000 hours of didactic classroom learning, not to include the time spent studying for quizzes, tests, mid-terms and memorization of the entire body and medicine used to maintain said body.”
According to DeBaun, his instructors told him students should spend two hours at home studying for every hour spent in the classroom. That equates to another 2,000 hours in study time over the course of just 16 months.
“At the end of all of this you will then proceed into your field internship with Pike Township Fire Department, where you, the paramedic student, acts as the decision maker for each and every patient that you come in contact with while under direct supervision of a licensed paramedic,” DeBaun said. “You will do this for 10 separate 12 hours shifts on a Pike Township ambulance, incurring another 120 hours of field paramedicine on top of the 3800 hours you have already put in. At which point, once you have completed this part of the journey, you are signed off by the director and released to test for your National Registry Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic Psychomotor and Written Exams.”
After completing all that, DeBaun was able to submit his paramedic licensure paperwork to the state where the EMS commission and Department of Homeland Security decided whether to license him as a paramedic.
All of the above is typically being done by individuals who work full time, raise kids, and provide for their families.
“It is truly one of the most hard, trying, true, insightful, exciting, draining, exhausting, rewarding, humbling, and over all fun times of your life,” DeBaun said. “It will break you down and build you back up, time and time again, but I would not trade it in for the world.”
According to Jackson Township Trustee Robyn Cook, “Taylor’s job performance, integrity and work ethic are always exemplary. He is such a humble young man. It’s exciting to see his hard work and dedication pay off.”
Thanks to all his hard work and dedication, DeBaun’s license has given Jackson Township Fire Department the opportunity to have two full-time paramedics on duty every day, 365 days a year.
“Every firefighter in the state of Indiana is trained at the BLS level as an EMT-B: BLS – basic life support – and EMT-B – emergency medical technician basic,” DeBaun said. “Paramedic is different in the aspect that you are more like a doctor in the field, larger knowledge base with a lot more responsibility. Paramedics operate at an ALS level. ALS – advanced life support. In turn, this benefits the community by providing the residents of Jackson Township and the cities within the township with ALS paramedic coverage 24 hours a day, every day. Giving the community the highest possible trained emergency medical responder to respond to their emergencies.”