PULSE Magazine | October 2019 Issue

New career paths for emergency medical professionals City of Austin Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

The problem Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services needed to increase its hiring pool and wanted a more diverse workforce. EMS roles allow for a multitude of backgrounds with training to move through the possible career paths. How might we attract and recruit qualified, experienced medics into EMS? Solution / Approach EMS conducted qualitative research with current staff and analogous careers with the community to understand how to attract candidates to fill the diverse set of roles that are required to operate emergency medical services. They developed new strategies for hiring and recruiting based on research that highlighted where roles in EMS could provide career path growth for members of our community that might not normally perceive this path as achievable . Core Team Key Advisors Lisa Sepulveda EMS Chief Ernesto Rodriguez Hillary Berquist Tina Graves Julia Byron Mary Hoad Michael Henderson Rance Marion Courtney Jacinic Assistant Chief Teresa Gardner

What can make it sustainable? Continuing to iterate on where we might look for candidates and our outreach strategy. Current roles will continue to change with time, and career paths will continue to evolve.

Advice to others Involving executive leadership helps to ensure that initiatives that show value are priori- tized and implemented. It’s key to involve stakeholders as recruitees and internal staff for implementation.

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