Cambrian College, Ornge offer new paramedic training program
12 students are already taking the college’s Advanced Care Paramedic graduate certificate program
The province’s air ambulance is teaming up with Sudbury's Cambrian College to train more flight and land paramedics.
The collaboration is a way for Ornge to expand its reach and save money, said Dan McGuire, who is in charge of paramedic education and training for the firm.
- Helipad at Health Sciences North dedicated to 2013 Ornge crash victims
- Ornge, Ontario's air ambulance service, faces 17 labour code charges
- Ornge didn't protect health, safety of pilots: federal investigators
Twelve students are already taking the college’s Advanced Care Paramedic graduate certificate program. The course teaches students advanced paramedic skills for use on the ground and in the air.
McGuire said the collaboration means Ornge won't have to pay to train graduates for advanced flight and land care.
"If we could push some of that out to the community college programs, I think it's just smart business."
Ornge will continue to offer internal training to employees, however.
Another Ornge-Cambrian program is in the works — one that would give land-based paramedics training to hone their skills in the sky.
Cambrian’s paramedic training co-ordinator at the college, Kevin Branch, said he believes “it's a win-win situation for, not only Ornge and Cambrian, but also for patients or people of Ontario and northern Ontario."
McGuire noted the training is, in part, a response to a demand for more flight training.
“There has to be an intricate balance between what we're doing in the colleges and what we're doing internally,” he said.
“[We don’t want to] close the door on ourselves by providing so much training internally that we wouldn't provide opportunity for students to be able to come in from the community college.”
Applications for next year's classes begin Oct. 1.