A Message from the Directors of CCSF’s Paramedic & CVT/ECHO Programs

CCSF is at a turning point–our budget is stable and students are returning in great number. But we need more classes right now because vital CCSF programs from ESL to Allied Health and Nursing are turning away hundreds of students every semester.

This Thursday, October 24, at the Board of Trustees meeting, faculty and students from CCSF’s essential healthcare programs will be joining other community members in speaking out about the urgent need for more support. CCSF is a key source for first responders and diverse public health practitioners–our city needs these grads, and CCSF can and should produce more of them.

If you’ve had your heart x-rayed, your blood drawn, or received assistance from a Paramedic, EMT, or Firefighter, then you know the value of the following programs and why it is so important that they are adequately staffed and managed.

• ECHO: trains students in cardiovascular medical imaging, a key field for Bay Area public health, something COVID made very clear. But this essential program is understaffed, and, as a result, we turn away at least 60 students with every 2-year cohort. This is ALL because of challenges with clinical placements. Students in healthcare programs need to learn by being placed in a healthcare setting. Right now, ECHO has NO FT faculty in the program and PT faculty have no time to seek additional clinical sites.

• Phlebotomy (blood drawing): CCSF’s phlebotomy program is a one-semester pathway course that leads to many opportunities in healthcare (ER technician, lab technician, etc.), but can only take 20-25 students each semester due to limitations on clinical placement. They turn away approximately 25 students each semester who apply but don’t make it in the lottery. This class also only runs in fall and spring, with no summer semester due to these same challenges.

• EMT 100: is another one-semester entry-level course that is required for programs like Fire, Paramedic, Nursing, or other medical fields. Currently, CCSF can only offer this opportunity to around 20 students, but demand is almost double that. Program understaffing limits offerings to two sections plus a summer section.

• Paramedic: the Paramedic AS degree is one of the pathways students choose to take after EMT 100. Each year there are about 75 qualified applicants, but the program can only take 25 due to limited clinical placement sites and field internship sites. That means we turn away approximately 50 potential Paramedics every year.

So what are some solutions?
What we are currently doing is not meeting our students or our faculty’s needs–it is time to try something new. A clinical manager, shared between multiple programs that require clinical placements, would go far to ease staffing issues in our health care programs. Right now each program’s director handles managing clinical sites and placements in addition to required work with program accreditors and outside regulatory agencies and ongoing program management. It’s not a sustainable workload for directors and it limits our enrollment. Turnover among program directors is high for this very reason.

Our faculty on the ground in our vital healthcare programs see a clinical manager as a way to creatively ease the staffing burden in multiple in-demand programs. Programs that could benefit include: Paramedic, Registered Nursing, ECHO, and Phlebotomy, to name a few.

We welcome you to come to the CCSF Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, and hear about this from students and faculty in these programs. Public comment will start around 5:30pm, and you can join in person at MUB 140 (CCSF Ocean Campus) or virtually here: https://ccsf-edu.zoom.us/j/84764836783

We’re not asking for the moon. We know the budget is finite–we are asking for smart, targeted investments that will pay dividends down the line, and, in the short term, increase our city’s supply of vitally needed health care professionals, from Paramedics and EMTs to Cardiac Sonographers and Nurses.

Together we can move CCSF Forward.

Signed –
Megan Corry and Jennifer Garcia