Many students may assume their professors are too busy teaching classes, holding office hours and attending faculty meetings to have other jobs and commitments beyond their position at Bluffton. This is not the case for Emily Buckell, assistant professor of Spanish, who works as a volunteer emergency medical technician in Bluffton.
Buckell’s EMT gear. Photo provided by Emily Buckell
“I’ve only been doing this for about two years now,” said Buckell. “I don’t find it that stressful, they put you through a really tough course and process ahead of time so you’re prepared, but also we’re a very small, very quiet place to live, so we don’t have exciting things like you see on TV.”
Buckell said her motivation to become an EMT stems from a personal life event.
“A few years back, my dad was sick. He’s diabetic, and his blood sugar crashed,” said Buckell. “He was acting like he was having a stroke, but he lives an hour away from all of us kids. When the EMTs came, they were able to help him. I really appreciated the help I was getting there, and I wanted to be able to do that for other people.”
Training wasn’t easy. Buckell said she had to take multiple three-hour morning classes. She was also required to pass demonstration practicums, take a national exam and keep up training even after that, renewing her license every two years.
As a volunteer for such an unpredictable job, Buckell has a unique schedule.
“From 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., if a call comes in, I take it,” said Buckell. “But I know those ahead of time, and I’ve arranged those, and if I can’t do it, I arrange for someone to cover and we swap shifts, just like you do at work. Then on weekends, it’s pretty much expected anyone who can respond, does.”
Buckell isn’t the only volunteer EMT in town. In fact, she said all EMTs besides the chief are volunteers. Everyone, including the chief, work other jobs in addition to their volunteer work.
The Volunteer EMT building, found behind the Volunteer Fire Department on Main Street. Photo by Nathan Heinze
“A volunteer squad has a scanner or some means of communication,” said Buckell. “So what happens is if you can go, you go. Sometimes you’re gonna be in a meeting and it’s turned off, but other times, you’re able to go. So you respond though an app on your phone, and you go to the station, and you go at it from there.”
Despite Bluffton’s reputation as a safe and quiet village, Buckell said the EMTs still get the occasional call.
“Around here, because of the amount of homes for the elderly, a lot of what we do is falls and transporting sick people. It’s not, like high-risk all the time, high-adrenaline,” said Buckell. “The village is really small, so around here it’s likely that I will [encounter someone I know].”
