AUSTIN, Texas — One of the largest Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) classes was officially sworn-in at the State Capitol Friday afternoon.
Cadet Class 0723 is made up of 30 cadets. Twenty-two will work as medic-field cadets, while eight will go directly into the clinical specialist position.
ATCEMS said this graduating class will drop its staffing vacancy rate to 12%. The agency currently has 137 vacancies. This past summer, the vacancy rates were around 22-25%.
On Sept. 11, the Austin City Council approved a four-year contract with ATCEMS to help with staffing and retention issues. The contract includes a 4% pay raise for all current employees and a base-pay rate of over $24 per hour for entry-level medics. Tenured employees will see raises upwards of 14.5% in Year 1.
“We’re really optimistic that this contract is going to play a part in helping us recruit better and retain the folks that are here,” ATCEMS Cpt. Christa Stedman said.
Some of the newly graduated cadets can start working in the field as early as this weekend, while others may take about a month or two.
“Once they are finished with their rotations as a three-person crew, then they’ll move down to a two-person crew, and that’s where we really see the help as far as staffing is concerned,” Stedman said.
While ATCEMS said these new cadets will help in the field, Stedman said what the agency really needs is more communications medics.
"They're the very first voice that you hear when you call 911 for help,” Stedman said. “They’re able to start giving care over the phone before an ambulance ever gets on the scene, so it’s really an incredibly important part of our chain of survival, so we want to make sure that that we have enough of those folks. We don't want to have anybody going without. We don't want anybody to have to hold at all."
About 50% of the cadets in this graduating class are from outside Texas, as ATCEMS has also been ramping up its recruiting efforts across the country. Earlier this week, ATCEMS officials were at a conference in New Orleans in an effort to recruit.
“I am 100% certain that we’re going to see a good group of applicants from the conference we were at because there was a lot of interest,” Stedman said.
The next cadet academy will start in October, and then another will take place in January. More information can be found at the ATCEMS website.