Emergency care: Service and skills in action

After a summer of service and skill building, students in Opportunities in Emergency Care (OEC) – part of the Health and Human Services pathway at Spring Lake Park High School, are back on the sidelines of fall athletics. You are likely to see them polishing skills and gaining experience through volunteer service in our community.

After 38 years teaching in the Opportunities in Emergency Care program, Bill Neiss admits, “Fall is like being shot out of a cannon.”

From early September to mid-October, OEC students will volunteer at more than 30 athletic events. Football games, hockey try-outs, state soccer games, softball games, a marathon – through supporting these events, students learn on the job.

One certified Emergency Medical Technician is responsible at each event – for the care of any patients and mentoring students. Newer students are just learning - watching and seeing what it's like to be part of the team. They get tips on how to talk to patients, do assessments and provide simple care. Each student in Emergency Medical Technician and Emergency Medical Responder courses is required to volunteer 10 hours each trimester. These hours are critical for improving skills through practice.

Bill and John Lindstrom, who teaches firefighter courses in the OEC program, split up the events to provide oversight, often after teaching five classes over the course of the day.

"It's just what we do," says Bill.

He knows how important the real-life practice is and also what it means to serve the community. His email signature sums up what he tries to instill in the program experience, "Don't strive to be a person of success, instead, strive to be a person of value."

Summer of service and skills

Practicing skills through hours of service doesn’t just happen during the school year. OEC students are racking up the practice in volunteer gigs throughout the summer, too.

The 2025 Target USA CUP, hosted at the National Sports Center in Blaine, was the largest in the 40-year history. Bill served as the field medical coordinator and 75 percent of the volunteers came from the OEC program at Spring Lake Park High School. Bill put in 116 hours during the week of competition.

“We had 127 volunteers on the medical team who completed 832 calls,” says Bill. “There were 290 injuries that got transported to the clinic, and five ambulance transports.”

Bill noted the “wild weather.” The first day was hot and humid, and the next day the team was running to the school for blankets.

The adventures continued as 22 people with ties to the OEC program traveled to the Dominican Republic on a medical mission trip. Seven were Class of 2025 grads from Spring Lake Park High School – all certified EMTs. During the trip, they saw 480 patients and participated in training 25 doctors and nurses in pediatrics, intubation, ultrasound, CPR and EKG interpretation.

“When we go there, we are stationed in San Juan,” says Bill. “Then we do four days of mobile medical clinics in barrios.”

The crew reported on remarkable blood pressure numbers, high blood sugar and the need for vitamins. Practicing their skills away from home, they gained another level of new insight.

A new year

All of the volunteer hours throughout the year prepares students for their credentialing exams and for future jobs. Last year, 30 students achieved their EMT certifications and 29 achieved their EMR. Over the past two years, 57 students have attained their EMT certification. That’s a new high.

“Right now, the passing rate on the test is 100 percent,” says Bill. “National pass rate is something like 70 percent.”

As the new year begins, class enrollments for Nursing Assistant, Emergency Medical Technician and Emergency Medical Responder are maxed out. It is the first year there will be two nursing assistant sections all year. These are double block classes, taking up two hours per day, which is a big commitment in addition to the volunteer hours.

“Grads come in and help out,” says Bill, “hundreds of them throughout the year. We couldn’t do this without them. We get them from all over the map - some who graduated last year to some who graduated 40 years ago.”

They come back because the experience, for those that continue on in a medical field, is invaluable.

Sophia Park, a graduate from 2019, recently contacted Bill with some reflections on her high school experience. She’s now in medical school.

I knew I was going the medical school track very early on, but the advice I heard from online, social media, and advisors was to prioritize Advanced Placement classes over courses like Opportunities in Emergency Care. Looking back, I think having the experience from OEC would have been a game changer, in med school applications, classes, and clinical years. Sophia Park, 2019 grad

She’s noted the advantage students with hands on experience have in medical school.

“Some of the ‘ABCs’ of emergency medicine that I am learning for the first time in medical school are already second nature to some of the students who went through OEC courses in high school. Even though I’m not going into the emergency medicine field, the principles taught in OEC are still foundational to the assessment and management of every patient I see,” says Sophia.

Another more recent graduate, Philip Apel, Class of 2025, texted Bill in the last weeks of August. Philip is in school at Mayo Clinic to become a Physician’s Assistant.

“Much of the EMT foundation knowledge has been useful, and especially the clinical reasoning skills that we learn as a part of scenarios and decision making,” he shared. “I have no doubt they will continue to become even more useful as clinicals start. I am grateful I got to be a part of the program, and I still miss it sometimes. Hoping I will be able to make it back to volunteer in the winter.”

Opportunities in Emergency Care is part of the Health and Human Services pathway at Spring Lake Park High School. There are three Career and College Pathways that each represent a need for future jobs. Students explore careers, gain skills, work on real-world projects and even earn college credit and certifications.