1996 Regional Conference

1996 Regional Conference

Fordham University

College-Based EMS Services Meet
by Marc-David Munk

Originally appeared in JEMS, June, 1996
(Vol 21, No. 6)


pressMORE THAN 85 STUDENTS REPRESENTING 19 COLLEGE-BASED EMS services recently met for a three-day intercollegiate EMS conference hosted by Fordham University EMS, a student-run BLS ambulance squad.

The conference, which ran March 22 to 24, allowed collegiate EMS leaders to discuss issues of specific concern to on-campus EMS services. While the mainstays of the weekend were various lectures focusing on issues such as relations with campus security departments and the impact of student drug use on the collegiate EMS service, many participants reported that informal chats with EMS workers from other colleges were especially illuminating.

Also at the conference were local emergency service organizations who allowed participants a taste of New York City equipment and procedures: NYPD's Emergency Services Unit, FDNY and NYC*EMS all had delegates and apparatus on hand for an exhibition and NYC*EMS offered tours of their dispatch facility as well as observer ride-out shifts to interested attendees.

According to Kristen Annello, the chief of operations of Fordham University EMS, the theme of the weekend was "Beyond the Call of Duty," chosen, she says, to "recognize that being a member of a campus EMS service is a two-fold proposition, one is a student but also a health care provider who others rely on." The conference, she hopes, "helped people to balance those hats."

The next major intercollegiate EMS conference will be the annual meeting of the National Collegiate EMS Foundation scheduled for later this year, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutein Troy, N.Y.