Part 15: Jumping Through Hoops

An enormous weight had been lifted from me once Bill Hathaway let me know that my journey from Memphis to Baltimore had not been entirely a waste of time. I was one of a dozen out-of-state students – the first non-Marylanders - accepted into UMBC’s emergency health services program.

Getting my EMT certification in Maryland is no big deal, Hathaway said. There’s a volunteer fire company with a medic unit in Woodlawn if you want to keep current with your field experience, and an eight-week EMT refresher course about to begin at Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department.

I was a little peeved that the state would not accept my EMT certification from Tennessee and was requiring me to take a refresher course. Once I was certified in Tennessee, becoming eligible to work in Arkansas was a simple matter of driving to Little Rock and passing the exam.

The paramedic training in Tennessee was 1800 hours, far more than the 1600 hours in the national curriculum and what was taught in Maryland. I wasn’t asking to be recognized as a paramedic, just as an EMT. I even had the EMT national registry certification, but Maryland didn’t accept that either.

Maryland didn’t yet have a mechanism for EMTs and paramedic from other states. The most expedient path that the EHS program could arrange for us was to take a refresher course for EMTs up for re-certification.

After years of jumping through hoops, spending one evening a week for two months in a classroom at the Arbutus firehouse was a small price to pay to get up to speed in Maryland.

“You should be able to complete everything and be working in the field again before classes begin in the fall,” Hathway said. “A piece of cake.”

Sending me on my way, Hathaway gave me a packet of materials about the EHS program, including an invitation to a welcoming reception with R Adams Cowley for students and faculty.