BAKERSFIELD, Calif — Hall Ambulance has been around since 1971, and you’ve probably seen them throughout our Kern County community, helping your family, neighbors and now you could become apart of the team.
“This isn’t just a job, this is a career,” Nathan Kennedy, Training Center Coordinator for Hall Ambulance.
For 50 years Hall Ambulance has been dedicated to helping those in the Kern County Community and they are accepting applicants to join their EMS academy and learn how to be an EMT.
“An EMT really plays a big roll in the EMS system itself. They really play a major roll in hands on as far as bleeding control and vital signs and things like that,” Kennedy said.
The Hall Ambulance EMS Academy is accepting applications for their June cohort. The training process takes y weeks and teaches you everything you need to know to be an EMT out in the field.
“Monday through Friday you get paid to be here, get paid to learn, get paid to take a college course," Kennedy said.
While employees are enrolled in the academy, they make $14 per hour and once they pass their exams, Hall EMT’s make near $38,000 per year along with benefits.
"It has honestly been one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Kylie Cagle, an EMS academy student said.
Kylie Cagle is finishing up her last week at the EMT academy. According to Cagle, the classes are set up as lectures, with activities and life-like simulations to help prepare students for being out in the field.
“We run through assessments just to make sure that we understand everything that we are learning in the book in the field too. so it is really awesome to be hands on too,” Cagle said.
“I wanted a job that was always going to be different every single day and i genuinely like helping people. and once i saw the advertisement for hall i thought well that could be fun,” Miguel Ramirez, a EMS Academy student said.
And according to Kennedy, for many students, the pandemic played a major role in applying for their previous cohorts, as people saw first hand just how important first responders and the medical field was.
“People in 2020, really got to see what ems as a whole is all about and with that that is where we are getting a lot of our applicants. They want to come in and they want to make a difference,” Kennedy said.
To apply for the academy and to be apart of Hall Ambulance there is no prior medical experience needed, all you need is the motivation to help others.
“It’s a great field to get into," Kennedy said. "It is a great way to give back to the community, it is a way to really work with the community.”