UREMS wins Organization of the Year award

University of Richmond Emergency Medical Services took home the Collegiate EMS Organization of the Year award at the 23rd Annual National Collegiate EMS Foundation Conference in Philadelphia. The annual conference brought together approximately 1,200 registrants representing more than 100 colleges across North America.

The award recognizes an EMS organization that has demonstrated outstanding service to its campus and has had significant improvements in staffing, equipment or level of service provided. UREMS has embodied those “significant improvements” in all areas ever since transitioning seven years ago from SAVERS, an independent rescue squad, to UREMS, an affiliate of Richmond Ambulance Authority.

Senior Harry Lambert, president emeritus of UREMS, was able to see first-hand throughout the past four years how the student organization has transformed into the nationally recognized squad that it is today. In working with the ambulance authority, the student group was able to “move toward standardized guidelines for how [they] respond to medical calls and implement standard operating guidelines,” Lambert said.

“That transition gave us a sense of organizational purpose and structure that we hadn’t had before,” he said. Alongside this big internal change of procedures and guidelines also came an external shift in how the university community viewed the rescue squad.

“If people don’t trust us then there’s no point in us doing what we do,” Lambert said. “We are ultimately reliant on the trust of the university and the community. Ensuring that trust was really the hallmark of my presidency.”

Lambert and the current president Steph Ha drew on that trust to acquire the recommendation letters that they needed to apply for the award. Ha submitted six letters, two of which were from Steve Bisese, vice president for student development and Sgt. Randy Baran of University of Richmond Police Department.

“All of the providers’ hard work on campus is what inspired people in the community to write us recommendation letters in the first place,” Ha said. “ It shows that other people in the community appreciate what we do.”

Maj. Jason Roach of RAA, the organization’s adviser, also wrote a recommendation letter that highlighted its continued growth in membership and dedication to “providing great care for the campus population.” Roach also brought up the group’s commitment to public safety training and discussed the Hard and Fast Campaign, a CPR training program put on by UREMS.

“They truly are deserving of the award,” Roach said. “They’ve been deserving of it every year.”

UREMS had applied for the Organization of the Year award before, but this was the first time it won. In 2014, the organization won the Striving for Excellence award and the HEARTsafe Campus award. Last year, UREMS won the skills competition.

UREMS hopes to continue its progress in the coming years, Ha said. One thing that the organization is working on is having an apartment on campus that would act as a “home base” for on-duty providers.

“It takes a toll on our EMTs to have to respond from their apartment or dorm on campus,” Lambert said. “It’s a lot easier if there’s a designated place for them to go.”

Another initiative that Ha is working on is to get every student trained in hands-only CPR. She said she hoped to start working toward this goal by having a program at orientation.

“It’s really satisfying as a graduating senior to feel that the hard work I’ve put into UREMS is being recognized for what it is,” Lambert said, “which is a lot of commitment and something I’ve really dedicated my college career to.”

Contact copy editor Rebecca Fradkin at rebecca.fradkin@richmond.edu