PFARS receives award for outstanding EMS agency

The squad, which serves Princeton Township and Princeton Borough, including the University, has both full-time professionals and community and student volunteers. Several members and leaders of the group attribute its success to teamwork, dedication and innovation.

“It’s a great group of members who are very active and dedicated to providing the highest quality of emergency medical and technical rescue services to the community,” said PFARS vice president Peter Simon, who has been a member of the squad for 14 years.

Before becoming senior members of PFARS, trainees must complete an EMT class and an extensive training program, which ensures that they are “fully qualified and fully able to handle any emergency situations that they encounter,” Simon explained.

Christine Chong ’10, who has been a member of the squad for two years, said she was impressed by the intensity of PFARS training.

“We have such a strong training program, requiring an additional 10 modules besides the EMT certification,” she said. “We work really hard to try to provide the best kind of patient care possible.”

PFARS also works to ensure that all team members are prepared to experience the cases they’re called for. They talk among themselves to “make sure a member is able to handle [a specific emergency situation] before they’re going to be exposed to it,” Simon said.

Simon added that the PFARS response to medical emergencies has been enhanced by technologies that bolster the squad’s efficiency, such as electronic charting and the epinephrine pen.

PFARS, he said, was the first squad in the district to save a life using a defibrillator. And just one week after receiving authorization to use the epinephrine pen, the squad was able to save the life of a toddler who had an allergic reaction to peanut butter and went into anaphylactic shock.

Kathryn Bailey ’10 spoke highly of the squad’s receptiveness to ideas for improvement and opportunities that undergraduates gain by working with the squad.

Bailey described PFARS as “dynamic” and “constantly making changes to [improve].” One of these changes, she said, was hiring a second day crew to better service the University and the community. The second, paid crew has been hired to enable the squad to staff two ambulances from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, a time when student volunteers typically aren’t available.

Bailey also praised PFARS for its welcoming atmosphere. Recounting her own experience on the squad as a freshman, Bailey said the seniors took her under their wings. She added that she now enjoys not only spending time with fellow students, but also the personal connection she has been able to make with community members.

“The community members became part of my life,” she said, explaining that her experience on the squad has taken her out of the Orange Bubble and encouraged her to form friendships with people in the community whose lives differ greatly from her own.

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She said that being a part of the group offers the “unique experience of becoming involved in an organization that is outstanding in its field.”

Working in the University and town, she said, members are exposed to a broader range of medical and trauma issues. “You’ll gain knowledge you can only gain through experience. We get that access as undergrads,” Bailey said.

Chong said she was “amazed by how much people give of themselves whether or not they’re paid.”

Roughly a quarter of PFARS members are paid employees, while all others are volunteers.

Chong noted the squad’s fast response to calls as one of its best qualities.

Members who have achieved a certain rank are equipped with a pager and receive notifications of calls on and off campus. Wanting to make sure that the patient is fully taken care of “people scramble [and] drop what they’re doing to answer the next call,” she said.

Though one does not have to be a pre-med student to get a fulfilling experience working on the squad, Chong said, “if you’re a pre-med student, it’s an amazing way to get experience in healthcare. It’s the best way to get experience because you’re actually interacting with patients.”

Simon added that he hopes the squad will “continue doing what we’ve been doing and making sure we’re ahead of the curve” in the future.