PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – During the week of May 21-27 Maine EMS marked the 49th annual EMS Week, a week to honor and celebrate the EMS profession and its committed providers.
On EMS Recognition Day, Maine EMS and its board announced the recipients of the 2023 EMS Awards. Among this year’s honorees was NMCC’s Academic Dean Angela Buck, RN, MSN, FNP-C, who was awarded the 2023 EMS Merit Award. The Merit Award is given to those in the EMS system at the local or regional level who have demonstrated involvement and contribution in one or more areas of EMS activities. These areas include system development, education, administration, patient care, service involvement, public education, and quality/process improvement.
Buck was nominated by NMCC President Tim Crowley. “Angela was among the earliest professionals to recognize the value of using human patient simulation in the delivery of EMS and Nursing education in rural areas. The impact of her work will be felt for years to come not just in Aroostook County, but throughout Maine’s rural communities,” shared Crowley. “Angela’s embrace of these new learning formats has allowed NMCC to become a leader in the field. Her work demonstrates the level of quality and commitment our communities need to address the current challenges facing rural healthcare.”
After a career in nursing Buck joined the NMCC community in January 2017 as nursing faculty, later becoming the department chair for Nursing and Allied Health. Her success in these positions and her dedication to education led to her appointment as academic dean at NMCC in 2020. Buck was instrumental in the creation and implementation of the Nursing Simulation Center, which opened in 2018, and the creation of the EMS Simulation Center opened earlier this year.
According to Buck, “Simulation education plays a key role in providing education to our future healthcare professionals. In order for this training to be an effective educational modality, we need to guarantee the quality of the education meets the same high-level standards that are expected in an in-person experience.”
She explained that simulation training provides an improvement in the students’ knowledge, skills, and behaviors and has been shown to improve patient-level outcomes. This training provides the students with the freedom to learn and make mistakes, while not causing patient harm – which leads to better patient-level outcomes in the field.
“The simulation equipment at NMCC meets and exceeds some of the best in the country,” said Dr. Peter Goth, who serves as a medical advisor for the College’s Critical Care Transport program and specializes in critical care training.
EMS Maine will host regional awards ceremonies to present recipients with their awards. The Aroostook County ceremony will be held later this month and will honor Buck and the late Caribou Captain Daniel Raymond, who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. Raymond was with the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department as a full-time firefighter and paramedic for the City of Caribou for 28 years. He passed away suddenly this March.
EMS Week occurs the third week of May and was designated by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to honor those in the EMS field and the meaningful work they do in the Nation’s communities. To learn more about Maine EMS, visit their website at www.maine.gov/ems/.
Northern Maine Community College offers academic programs in Basic EMT, Advanced EMT, Paramedicine, and Community Paramedicine, as well as nursing, medical coding, and medical assisting. These programs are designed to prepare graduates with practical and relevant skills.
Those interested can contact NMCC Admissions at 207-768-2785 or email admissions@nmcc.edu.
