An ambulance recently retired from service has been donated to Motlow University for training purposes.

At last month’s meeting, county commissioners voted to declare the unit surplus and pass it on to Motlow’s EMS training department. The keys and paperwork for the ambulance were presented to Drew Hooker, EMS Director of the Motlow State EMS Education Department, by County Mayor Tim Stribling Tuesday afternoon.

Hooker said the vehicle will help greatly in the EMS training program.

“It will create realistic training for students, and when they graduate and show up at the EMS services they will be work ready,” Hooker shared. “We don’t want to train a student for a year and turn around and have to spend six or eight more weeks training. We want them to be ready when they get here so being able to put them in a real unit with real supplies will ensure that they have all the training necessary during the time they are with us. We want to provide the best education for the students and continue the relationship between the college and the EMS services along with the county governments because we need each other. We need the students and they need the employees to provide the best care for the citizens.”

AEMT/EMT Coordinator for Motlow EMS Education Kristie Johnson agreed.

“This donation will help us with real life scenarios,” Johnson said. “One of the biggest complaints we have is students who come out not exactly knowing how to use the equipment or driving the vehicles. This gives us an opportunity to run real life scenarios. We do a twenty four hour class where the students actually run twenty four hours with the lights, sirens, load patients, etc. This gives us an edge because nobody else has a truck in the Upper Cumberland area to use for practice. This is unbelievable for us as far as being able to train and get employees. We are very thankful to have this truck.”

Second District County Commissioner Joe Johnson said that the investment should see a good return form the county.

“We are proud to help the college by giving them a teaching tool which will return people back to us who are already trained to run our ambulance service,” Johnson said. “I think we will reap the cost of the old ambulance in benefits by having more and better trained employees.”