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Grady EMS turns to military veterans to address paramedic shortage
The Grady EMS academy is offering scholarships to veterans for training in Atlanta.
ATLANTA - Inside the Grady EMS Academy on Atlanta's West Side, a practice run at saving lives.
Future emergency medical technicians, advanced EMTs, and paramedics are honing their skills, working with "smart" mannequins.
Some are military veterans, like Robert Shoe, a now 40-something former Army Ranger and medic, who left the military in 2000.
After working in sales, Shoe is now working in patient transportation at Grady Memorial Hospital.
That is where he heard about the Grady EMS Academy, a program that covers the cost of training for military veterans.
"We're very good in trauma in the military," Shoe says. "I realized when I got here, I knew nothing about medical. We don't deal with any medical assessment at all. So, it was it's a lot more difficult than I think people understand, but it's very fulfilling."
The veterans, like Rachel Novotny, are on a full scholarship from The Home Depot Foundation.
Novotny is a medic in the Georgia Army National Guard, and an EMT in DeKalb County, who is now training to become a paramedic.
"I really just (like) working in EMS in general," she says. "I prefer working outside. I'm put in a lot of new situations."
Yet, finding trained medical personnel to keep up with emergency calls has been challenging.
With the sudden closure of WellStar Atlanta Medical Center, Grady Hospital is now the city's only level one trauma center.
Grady EMS and providers across the country have been struggling with a shortage of EMTs and paramedics, exacerbated by high burnout rates and the pandemic.
That is where the veterans come in, many drawn by the sense of camaraderie and mission in EMS.
It is something Shoe says he missed in sales.
"It is very reminiscent of the military, the teams, the way you deploy, I mean, just the way you operate during the day," he says. "You go in, you get assigned a machine, and you're on the road. "
Kayla Aenchbacher, a Grady paramedic and the lead EMT instructor at the Grady EMS Academy, says many of the veterans she is teaching come into the program with hands-on medical experience from their time in the military.
"It translates very well into the classroom, and to EMS," Aenchbacher says. "And, almost every single time we have a veteran, they are a great mentor to their fellow classmates."
Rachel Novotny and Robert Shoe say they both hope to work for Grady EMS one day.
So both encourage veterans who are looking for a second career to consider EMS.
"It's just it's a lot of fun to come here everyday and push yourself and then get to go to the streets," Shoe says. "And, I mean, not to sound cheesy, but you're out there trying to save lives. It's, it's exciting. It really is exciting."
Aenchbacher says up to 75% of their program graduates are typically hired by Grady EMS.