University of Montana’s Paramedicine Program Achieves Accreditation

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - When you see those distinct Missoula Emergency Services vehicles racing to respond to an accident, chances are that some paramedics are graduates of the growing University of Montana’s Paramedicine Program.

I spoke with UM’s Director of Strategic Communications, Dave Kuntz, about the success of the program.

UM Focuses on the Success of its Paramedicine Program

“We have a really exciting announcement that our Paramedicine program here at Missoula College, which is our two year embedded college here at the University of Montana, recently received its accreditation and has expanded its partnership with Missoula Emergency Services, which is big deal for us because now the program, which was launched in 2020 is accredited, and it provides highly trained paramedics with the opportunity to complete their education here in the community and then go serve in a high area of need, which is at Missoula Emergency Services,” began Kuntz.

Kuntz said the program’s growth has been a specific focus for UM President Seth Bodnar.

UM President Bodnar has been a Strong Advocate for the Program

“As the Missoula community has grown, we have incredible health care shortages, and not just in our Missoula area, but really across the state of Montana,” he said. “For that reason it's been an institutional priority of President Bodnar’s to really ‘partner in place’, and that means to be able to find areas where we can spin up academic programs and workforce training opportunities in order to meet the state's needs, and we've done this with cyber security and high tech jobs. We've done this is with teachers and education, and now we're seeing it happen more on the health care front.”

Kuntz said the program is directly affecting the employment pipeline in  Missoula and throughout Montana.

UM Paramedicine Graduates are Serving Throughout Montana

“We expect this partnership not only to help fill some of the shortages that we've seen in this line of work but also build a much more sustainable employment pipeline to ensure that we don't have shortages here in the future,” he said. “This credential also provides students the ability to come back to school and get degrees, potentially in athletic training or even with our physicians’ assistant program that's launching next year to allow them to build on their careers in the years ahead, and look to make more money and climb the ladder.”

Kuntz again emphasized the importance of the UM Paramedicine Program.

“This is a great example of the university identifying a community need and establishing that partnership,” he said. “As a result of that, in perpetuity, we'll have a strong pipeline of community health workers and paramedicine professionals who will go and work for the county.”

He said UM paramedicine graduates are now working in fire departments and ambulance services throughout Montana.