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S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 / W O R K F O R M E 19 Community College became an authorized training center, and York County Community College partnered with Southern Maine Community College to offer EMS programming. Through a distrib- utive education model, students complete coursework online and gather locally for hands on labs, often with community partners. For example, Eastern Maine Com- munity College collaborates with MaineHealth EMS to host lab co- horts in the Farmington area. "They're offering their lectures through distributive education, and then they're creating local lab cohorts in more local communi- ties, so people can come together for those lab cohorts but be closer to home," Sheets says. "That's providing us with new access to areas of the state that we hadn't necessarily been offering educa- tion consistently before." This flexible model also helps recruit instructors, many of whom work full time rotating shifts that conflict with tradi- tional schedules, making it easier for experienced providers to train the next generation. The approach appears to be working. Since 2020, workforce programs funded by the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan and the Harold Alfond Center have add- ed 1,192 EMTs and 137 AEMTs to Maine's workforce, in addition to the 300 to 450 EMS students who graduate from MCCS academic programs each year. The real-world impact of a strained system The loss of EMS workers is more pronounced in rural communi- ties that often lack the budgets to attract and retain EMTs and paramedics. Towns that once re- lied heavily on volunteers, but rising living costs now require many people to work more, leaving fewer available to serve. In many rural areas, the volunteer EMS workforce has largely disappeared. The town of Greenville illus- trates both the growing chal- lenges and determination of rural responders. Since 2017, emergency calls to Greenville's fire station have tripled, according to Sawyer Mur- ray, the fire department's chief and only full-time employee serv- ing an area of 850 square miles. Increased population and tourism have strained the sys- tem, leading to longer response times, especially when multiple emergencies occur at once. "On staff, there's only one EMS crew. So even if you get two EMS calls, they're toning for a second crew to try to backfill that other call or toning the fire department as first responders. And that's diffi- cult," Murray says. "The fire depart- ment doesn't have a transporting h e a lt h c a r e Ready for a Career with Real Growth Opportunity? Business • Employee Benefits • Bonding • Financial Services • Home • Auto Join the team shaping the future of insurance in Maine. Start your next chapter at United Insurance. UnitedInsurance.net/Careers P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M C C S Don Sheets is EMS program coordinator at the Maine Community College System. C O N T I N U E D O N F O L LO W I N G PAG E »