PENDER COUNTY — Pender County earned top honors in a statewide paramedic competition in April.
Pender Emergency Medical Services team McKenzie Shipp and Owen Feest claimed the number one title, for the first time in the county’s history.
Shipp and Feest were among six tops competing in Greensboro as part of the 31st annual North Carolina EMS Expo, an educational conference for paramedics, EMTs and county emergency services directors.
The Pender team outperformed five other pairs of regional champions selected following competitions in March from Iredell, Guilford, and Rowan counties, along with FirstHealth of Chatham County. Mecklenburg EMS was defending its back-to-back championships from the last two years of competition.
The teams all face the same 15-minute scenario as each emerges from sequestration to respond to a mock emergency. This year’s scenario involved multiple gunshot victims at a live music show at a bar and grill. Teams take turns assessing, treating and stabilizing “victims.”
“These teams practice all year to get ready for this. They study and prepare for all kinds of emergencies because they never know what they’re going to face in this competition,” Tom Mitchell, chief of the N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services, said in a press release. “That extensive training results in improved quality of care rendered to the citizens and visitors across North Carolina who suffer from illness or injury.”
Teams are judged on professionalism including areas of communication, organization, patient rapport, conduct and attitude. Hundreds of peers watch from the bleachers, providing an additional training opportunity for all in attendance.
Tips or comments? Email [email protected].
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning
