Family, School Lead Another Generation to EMS
March 03--Helping others runs in Kirsty Trautman's family.
When she was deciding on a career, the 21-year-old Myerstown, PA, woman decided to follow in their footsteps.
Her path to becoming an emergency medical technician at First Aid and Safety Patrol began in high school.
Trautman -- no relation to city Fire Commissioner Duane Trautman -- took the EMT course offered at Elco High School. Around that same time, one of her uncles, Jason Trautman, got a job in Fairfax, Va., as a firefighter-paramedic.
While visiting him, she got to see the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy, which trains career and volunteer firefighters and EMTs. That sparked her interest in the field, she said.
Her grandfather, Harold Trautman II, was an EMT at Silver Spring ambulance in Mechancisburg where he was assistant chief for years, she noted.
"It runs in the family," she said.
The EMT high school course led her to her present job at First Aid and Safety Patrol. She received her EMT certificate in January 2008.
On her 18th birthday, she said, she was offered a full-time EMT position at FASP. "What caught my eye was it was available in high school," she said about the EMT course.
She said she was lucky to get an intern position when she was as senior in high school, so she could work and go to school at same time.
Besides helping her land a job right out of high school, the high school EMT studies helped her in other ways as well. "It made me grow up pretty fast and showed me what responsibility really is," Trautman said.
While working full-time now at FASP, she is also enrolled as a paramedic student at Reading Hospital. She will complete the 11-month program in July. Once she is finished, Trautman said, she will be nationally registered as a paramedic.
Trautman said she spends much of her free time from her job studying for the paramedic program.
As part of the program, she is also required to spend time in the Reading Hospital emergency room.
"There's a lot of things to keep me busy every day," Trautman said.
She says she loves helping people.
"I'm a people person, I love being around people; I like helping people," Trautman said.
She said she has always been like that, even when she was a child. She has always wanted to help people feel better and make them smile.
"You definitely need some people skills in this job," she said.
No day on the job is the same, she said.
"That's what keeps me interested," Trautman said.
With the numerous snowstorms this winter, Trautman and the others on the FASP crew have been busy transporting patients injured in traffic accidents.
The winter has also put ambulance crews in the role of snow shovelers at times. They have had to shovel walks to get patients safely to the ambulance, she said.
Eventually, she would like to become a prehospital registered nurse on an ambulance crew. Her dream job, she said, would be a flight medic on a medical flight crew like Life Lion.
"I cannot see myself getting out of this anytime soon," Trautman said.
Copyright 2014 - Lebanon Daily News, Pa.
