My name is Bruce Womack, I am a full time Paramedic with the Wallowa
County Health Care District/Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise OR. My
job title is Director of Emergency Medical Services. Basically, here is
what that entails. I manage the ambulance program which is based out of the
hospital. The program consists of twenty-two part-time EMT's, thirteen Basic's,
seven Intermediates and two Paramedics.
More specifically, I am an active member of the ambulance crew, on call
twelve hrs/day, five days/week plus one 72 hrs/weekend shift per month. I
work from 8-10 hrs. per day at the hospital. When not involved in day to
day management of the ambulance program, I work in the Emergency Room and at
times on the hospital floor. Our ER is not staffed full time, rather a RN
from the floor responds to the ER when needed. My office is located
immediately adjacent to the ER, so when Admitting pages "ER Outpatient", I
usually get there first, at least I try!
We have approximately 450 ambulance runs/year and may see from 2-20
patients per day in the ER. While in the ER, I obtain patient histories, do
patient assessments, start IV's, twelve lead EKG's, give meds, and or
whatever interventions the RN and or MD order me to perform. Like most
other EMT's, I am a trauma junkie, but the ER part of my job provides me with
much more patient contact than I would normally experience in ambulance
operations alone. Further, because of my rather unique job situation
(ambulance, ER and hospital), I have the opportunity to follow a patient's
progress/outcome from prehospital, through discharge (hopefully).
I have been an EMT with the Wallowa Memorial Hospital ambulance program
since 1980, and a EMT Paramedic for the last six years. I came up through
the ranks, EMT 1,2,3,P. While I have been an EMT for over twenty years, EMS
has not always been my primary vocation. I earned a BS degree in
Anthropology/Sociology from Eastern Oregon State University in 1973 and an
MA in Anthropology/Archaeology from Washington State University in 1976.
In 1977, I went to work for the Bureau of Land Management as a professional
archaeologist. In 1980, I transferred to the USDA Forest Service in
Enterprise OR, as the archaeologist for the North Zone of the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. At the same time, I
began my career in EMS as an EMT-1/Basic.
On a Friday in May of 1999, I retired from the USDA FS with 27 years of
federal service. On Monday of the following week I went to work as a full
time Paramedic with Wallowa County Health Care as the Director of EMS.
This is something that I had always wanted to do, but never really believed
would happen. I now have what I consider to be one of the best EMS
positions in the country and could not imagine a higher level of job
satisfaction. I would not be where I am today were it not for the EMT
Basic class that I took in 1980.
Bruce R. Womack, EMT-P
Wallowa County Health Care District, Director of EMS
Oregon certified since 1980
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