Delgado Community College

Delgado Community College is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1921, it is the state’s oldest and largest community college.

In 2005, two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, swept across the region leaving much devastation.  All of Delgado's locations have since reopened.  Enrollment in the fall of 2006 made Delgado the largest higher education institution in New Orleans with close to 12,000 students returning – more than 60 percent of the previous fall’s record pre-Katrina enrollment and an almost 20 percent increase over spring 2006 numbers.

Last spring, Delgado and the Louisiana Technical College (LTC) District 1 embarked on a new partnership to provide a comprehensive educational experience. This allows both institutions to be more collaborative, responsive and flexible in meeting particular workforce needs of the region. Personnel and programs are consolidated, centralizing services and sharing resources.

Delgado Community College offers several allied health programs that help provide the community with much needed healthcare professionals. Graduates are employed in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, long-term care facilities, rehabilitative care facilities, public health facilities, sports medicine clinics, state and federal clinics, clinical laboratories, research laboratories, and in industrial medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.

Department of EMS Education
Katrina forced the closing of many New Orleans hospitals and many healthcare providers were displaced. There are now tremendous challenges in securing ample skilled labor to meet increased demand for pre- and post-hospital care. The critical shortage of qualified professionals extends to a number of job types, including those who provide emergency medical services (EMS).  Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians are often the first responders in a medical crisis; the current shortage of these professionals is putting a marked strain on the region’s healthcare delivery system.

To meet increasing demands for qualified healthcare professionals, Delgado’s Department of EMS Education is pursing solutions to offer essential training and certification opportunities for new and continuing EMS students. Currently, Delgado offers the only nationally accredited EMS program in the Greater New Orleans area and one of only three in the state.

The Department of EMS Education, working closely with the Delgado Workforce Development and Education Department and the Louisiana Department of Labor, has been able to secure various grants for training.

A National Emergency Grant, in coordination with the City of New Orleans, Life Guard Inc., Guardian EMS and the Louisiana Coast Guard allowed Delgado to train over 60 Emergency Response personnel in over 80 classes. 

An incumbent worker grant was awarded to fund training for the employees of AMED Ambulance Inc. in the area EMT Basic, Intermediate, Paramedic and various non-credit courses. The Incumbent Worker Training Program is designed to benefit business and industry by assisting in skill development of existing employees and increasing employee productivity. 

Another incumbent workers grant was recently awarded for Mandeville Fire District 4 in St. Tammany Parish. The grant will cover the cost of tuition and books for 16 firefighters to complete a Paramedic Certificate of Technical Studies program and nine firefighters to complete the EMT Paramedic Associate Degree Bridge Program. Mandeville Fire District 4 is the main 911 emergency service provider for the area, requiring advanced training for its firefighters. This grant will help the fire department meet its self-mandated goal of having all of its firefighters paramedic level trained within three years.

This goal and the need for additional training sites in St. Tammany Parish have sparked a unique partnership between Delgado and Fire District 4.  As of April 2007, classes are being held in a brand-new, 6000-square-foot Mandeville Fire District 4 building, which includes both classrooms and simulation rooms for hands-on training.  The Paramedic Certificate of Technical Studies (CTS) program, which extends over four semesters, is currently piloting as a three-semester program with the Mandeville Fire District 4 employees. The program has established five key hospital associations for clinical rotation with access to Intensive Care Units, Operating Rooms for intubations, and Labor and Delivery units, to name a few. Delgado intends to open the Paramedic CTS program to the public in January 2008 with Mandeville Fire District 4 as the host site.

The Department of EMS Education is also participating in a Community Development Block Grant that was awarded in April 2007 to Delgado and other colleges across a 10-parish area. The grant will provide tuition for 65 EMT Basic students and 17 Paramedic CTS students over the next three years.  The EMT Basic students will begin to be incorporated into the program this summer at the Mandeville Fire District 4 campus.  The department is also planning to open a Paramedic night program in Slidell in cooperation with Slidell Fire District 1 in August 2008.

Program Director of the Department of EMS Education Sharmaine Hughes, RN, AS, NREMT-P, was a graduate of the first paramedic program offered at Delgado Community College.  She proudly boasts that she has received all of her medical training at Delgado.  “From EMT basic to an Associate degree in Paramedics and Nursing, the college and the Department of EMS education has more than prepared me for the variety of positions held over the past eighteen years,” she said.  “I am currently pursuing a third degree, and Delgado is once again there meeting my educational needs.”

“Our goal is to provide the community with highly skilled health care providers,” explained Hughes.  “The standard of training has become to ‘train the students for patient care away from the patient.’  To do this we use simulation labs for training.” 

Simulation training has been incorporated into the curriculum for years at Delgado, but began in earnest in 2000 when the college started purchasing training products. Delgado has a full line of Laerdal products, including Laerdal® SimMan®, Laerdal® SimBaby™, Virtual I.V.®, MicroSim™, Laerdal® Airway Management Trainer and the Pediatric Intubation Trainer.

“This simulation equipment allows us to provide various scenario-based training situations to our students with ‘real time feedback,’” said Hughes.  “This promotes and enhances critical thinking skills and the decision making process that is critical to the health practitioner.” She adds, “Laerdal sales staff and service department have been essential in developing and delivering these products to the educators in the healthcare arena.”

For more information on Delgado Community College, visit www.dcc.edu.