As only a junior at Grand County High School, Lucas Caylor is one of the youngest kids currently in the Career and Technical Education internship program. On a health science pathway, he chose to spend this time with Grand County Emergency Medical Services because had previously gotten his basic Emergency Medical Technician certification, as he explained to me while touring one of the station’s ambulances. I visited Lucas at the station to find out how the first couple weeks of his internship have been going.
Every quarter GCHS sends a new group of students into the community through its work-based learning program. These students become radiologists, teachers, journalists and so much more for seven weeks. Through this program, these interns begin to get an idea of what they might want to do after school and learn boundless information about their field. As an intern for the Sun News this quarter I will be following a new student every week to get a sense of their experience.
So what’s Lucas up to?
Lucas is still spending his time learning all the ins and outs of operations at the station. An average hour for him while there consists of a lot of waiting for a call to come in and at least one training per day.
A lot of this time is spent just ‘hanging out’ and he’s been getting to know the station pretty well.
With the help of Alec Richardson, an EMT who’s been working there for about a year and a half while going to school at Brigham Young University, I was shown around the ambulance bay and various training areas.
Our station responds to calls not only in the Moab Valley but all around the county, and GCEMS personnel are often the first people on the scene at search and rescue calls. They even have an off-road rig equipped to be able to travel through rough backcountry, and motorbikes to get to more remote locations around the area.
While on shift the EMTs must also maintain physical fitness and keep up with professional training. I was able to briefly witness one training on the proper use of a traction splint, a device used on femur fractures to greatly improve the comfort of the patient and align the bone.
Even in just two short weeks at the station Lucas has learned a ton and was even able to walk me through putting a blood pressure cuff on Richardson while in one of the rigs.
Lucas wants to become a physical therapist for a college or major league sports team, combining his passion for sports and medicine. He wants to use the experience he’s gaining with EMS to “pretty much figure out if I actually want to do this,” which is exactly what this program is about.
Although Lucas doesn’t plan to go into emergency medicine, he likes the fast-paced nature of it.
“I feel like gaining that quick analysis of things will help me better determine injuries and stuff a lot quicker,” he said.
Lucas is on the cross country and boys soccer team at the high school and hopes to be able to play soccer at a college level. He hopes his knowledge of what happens on the field will give him a leg up in helping athletes off of it.
Even though he hasn’t had the opportunity to go out on a call yet—since this is just the beginning—Lucas has really enjoyed his placement at EMS.
“I think that I really could do something with the career pathway that I’m going down,” he said.
Lucas mentioned how much he was enjoying all the people who work there and have made his experience. Although he may not be back in the paper, I’m curious to find out how his knowledge and plans will have shifted by the end of this experience. Maybe he’ll be there to help you one day. All you have to do is trust a 16-year-old.
