GREENVILLE – Citing a need for essential health care workers, Spirit Medical Transport, LLC, is not only providing interested candidates with the keys to starting a new career but a chance at a new car as well.
“With things starting to again open up after the pandemic, the need for EMTs throughout the nation is at an all-time high,” Spirit Medical Transport President/CEO Brian K. Hathaway said. “There’s such a need, one lucky person in our summer class will win a new car.”
Hathaway said anyone accepted to the paid class, who maintains perfect attendance and at least an 80% class average then passes their national registry test on the first attempt will be placed in a drawing to win a 2021 Jeep Cherokee Latitude four-wheel drive.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever done something like this,” Vice President Aaron Guthrie said. “But with the ever-changing times comes the need to adapt and overcome, so that patient needs in the rural communities we serve can be met.”
Spirit has a waiting list of more than 80 facilities in western Ohio and eastern Indiana who have requested its services, but based upon the lack of staffing, it has been unable to serve their needs.
“There’s people’s loved ones out there that need our help, but like everyone else around, the struggle to find help continues to challenge us,” Hathaway said. “We have a scholarship program that enables people with a passion to help others to be able to do so, all the while being paid to learn in the process.”
Application requests can be made by going online to the Spirit webpage at www.spiritmedicaltransport.com and clicking on the graduation cap or by emailing Spirit’s Director of Human Resources and Regulatory Compliance Ted Bruner at [email protected]. The application deadline is 5 p.m. June 9 for classes that will start in late June. The full-ride scholarship involves an employment commitment to Spirit.
After submitting the application, candidates are interviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis by a member of the Spirit human resources department. Panel interviews of scholarship finalists are taking place weekly.
The classes are a partnership between Spirit Medical Transport and Four County Career Center based in Archbold. Classes will be held five days a week starting in late June. Class hours are typically held Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Spirit Education Center.
The classes are adapted to various learning styles and include trips to a cadaver lab, an emergency vehicle operations course, a class with Chief Medicolegal Death Investigator Joe Van Vickle of the Darke County Coroner’s Office regarding CSI files of Darke County and lessons on the basics of customer service in EMS. Company owners also provide weekly meals to attending participants.
Since the company-sponsored scholarship program first began in August 2017, more than $750,000 has been invested into educating local people desirous of starting an EMT and/or paramedic career at Spirit Medical Transport.
With offices in Celina, Greenville, Houston, Sidney and Van Wert in Ohio along with Liberty, Indiana, scholarships are open to people who live near their respective service areas. Company officials also provide transportation assistance and e-learning opportunities to successful applicants who may not live near the class location but still have an interest in taking advantage of the scholarship opportunity.
