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THUNDER BAY – 20 new paramedic graduates are ready to fill the void of service in the Thunder Bay District.
Shane Muir, chief of Superior North EMS, told Newswatch that this is the largest group of recruits he has seen in his career.
“They just went through a lot of school, a lot of training to get to this point, so it's a really exciting time in their career,” Muir said.
“They're full of energy, and we want to see them out on the road. It's a perfect time for them to develop their skills, get out there, learn the ropes, and really help our public in those dire situations, and I think that's exactly what they're looking to do, and we can’t be more excited about it.
Muir said that six of the recruits will be stationed in Thunder Bay. The other 14 will be dispersed throughout the district. The recruits can move from base to base to cover shifts who are down staff members.
Only days ago, 97 per cent of district paramedics voted in favour of a strike mandate citing recruiting challenges and understaffing as key issues.
"We're filling our shifts with premium pay and things like that if there are any vacancies or down staffing. We're always offering extra pay and things like that for shifts to cover those places,” Muir said.
“But the situation we're in right now, there are just not enough paramedics. So, this recruitment class is imperative to get them out there. And we're hoping to see this year’s(class size) kind of continue in the same kind of way so that we can have large recruitment classes, fix our staffing issues and see better staffing levels across the entire district.”
Over the last few years, said Muir, he would see “a couple trickling” through to graduation. However, by collaborating with Confederation College and the Regional Health Science Centre, Superior EMS was able to “bolster” recruitment efforts.
Muir also said Superior EMS created an incentive program for recruits willing to work for them, a $4,000 annual bonus for their first two years.
The recruits will be finishing up their last couple of days of training at the EMS base on Junot Avenue before starting their roles as paramedics.
Paramedic Nicholas Myshok said he is excited to finally start working.
“It was like a long journey through the two years of education, which is very challenging. It's probably one of the hardest programs there is, and just being able to work and help the community that I grew up in is very exciting,” Myshok said.
Growing up in Shuniah, he said, there was a limited EMS response — which is why he wanted to do his part in helping people.
“I'm going to the district, which is very exciting because there are smaller communities with less hospitals, less response times like with fire and police, so being able to help those communities that really need it,” Myshok said.
Muir said that this class is well equipped to handle the difficult situations they will encounter will out on the road.
“They've gone through all this training for years now to get to this point, and now they can finally take those skills, put them into practice and really fill that need that's apparent right now,” he said.
