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Dial 911 for an emergency on the University campus and a Richland County EMS unit will arrive within minutes--but not before the University's own first response team.
USC's first responders are students, all of whom have completed basic training as emergency medical technicians, and they're based in the Thomson Student Health Center. The first responders are dispatched through the University Police Department on all campus 911 calls--about 150 to 200 each semester.
"Because of our proximity, we have a response time of less than five minutes--either on foot or in a van," said Debbie Beck, executive director of the Student Health Center. "We're on call 24/7, and we're often treating injuries or at least stabilizing an injured person before the county paramedics or other emergency personnel are on the scene."
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| Debbie Beck |
Before they can join the team, students undergo a rigorous screening and training process. Most of the students work several hours per week; those on call overnight sleep in a designated room at the health center. Student first responders earn about $10 per hour and only take calls when they're not in class.
"We respond to all kinds of calls, including serious injuries from bicycle accidents, heart attacks, and seizure disorders to more simple things such as sprained ankles," Beck said. "It's a huge asset to the campus to have this unit, because the county system can get bogged down with other calls, and it might be 10 minutes before they're able to get here."
Catherine Meekins is a pre-med junior and the lead EMT for the first responder unit. She's interested in both pediatrics and neurology in medical school; for now she's focused on being ready for the next call.
"You've got to be able to handle anything; you expect the worst, but it's usually not," she said. "Sometimes it can look really bad with lots of blood, but the injury might not really be that serious."
The first responder team has been operational on the Columbia campus for about 20 years, and Beck, who joined USC last year, wants to increase the scope of the unit's mission.
"I'd like to tie it into the Healthy Carolina system and, eventually, have a fully certified unit, which would mean extra training for the responders," Beck said. Some universities have their own ambulance units, particularly if they're in rural areas where response time from county EMS might be slower, she said.
First responder Stewart Benton is a pre-med senior who will graduate in May and begin medical school in the fall. Like Meekins, he's worked on USC's team for 18 months and has been the first on the scene on all kinds of calls.
"I've responded to both trauma and medical calls, some of them potentially life threatening," Benton said. "It's been a great learning experience; I can't say that it has steered me toward an emergency medicine career, but it has been a good preparation for medical school."
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Student First Responders: Stewart Benton, senior, and Catherine Meekins, junior
