Tennessee struggles with paramedic shortage
By Carley Gordon
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — Tennessee is experiencing a severe EMT and paramedic shortage.
The problem has gotten so bad that officials in Wilson County recently shut down an entire station. Paisley Godfree is an advanced EMT who’s studying at Vol State to become a paramedic.
“It’s really something that you have to have a heart for,” Godfree said. But, unfortunately, she’s one of the few.
“They might not be shutting the ambulance station down next to your house or the fire station next to your house right now, but it could be the next one,” Vol State EMS instructor Cory Gibson said.
COVID and overall employee shortages are partially to blame. Still, the leading cause is better to pay offered by other entities. For example, Gibson said a local hospital recently offered trained paramedics $75 an hour to work in their ER on weekends.
“How can they compete with it? I mean, you can go work a couple of days and then have the rest of your week off,” Gibson said.
Fewer medical responders mean a longer wait time for patients, which is a potentially deadly combination.
“If you’ve been in a car wreck, from an arterial bleed, you can bleed out and be non-salvageable in just a few minutes,” Gibson said.
At Vol State, instructors are teaching night classes. They’re also recruiting from high schools, but this is not a problem that can be fixed overnight.
“I mean, they can’t just hire somebody off the street to do this job. I mean, at the basic level, to be qualified to work on a 911 ambulance is two semesters of school,” Gibson said.
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