Anyone affiliated with CWRU, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff may join as a general member. To join as a clinical member, either by taking our EMT course or as a current EMT, you must be a current undergraduate student.
Additional eligibility requirements for clinical membership are available in the application.
We accept general members any time and clinical members on a semesterly or yearly basis. Please check the General Membership and Clinical Membership sections of the webpage for the applications and information about when we will be accepting new members.
General members are welcome to attend our weekly Monday meetings, Squad Education and Training (SET) and Operations and Planning (OPs). At SET, a guest speaker or executive board member will present on a topic related to prehospital care or emergency medicine. OPs is our weekly executive board meeting and is open to all members. General members may also vote in CWRU EMS elections after having attended at least 3 SETs in the semester.
Additional opportunities will be in the weekly newsletter.
The time commitment will change as you move forward in CWRU EMS. As an EMT student, you will have 3 four-hour class/lab sessions a week, along with homework, ER clinicals, and ride-along time. You should expect to devote a significant amount of time to this course. After you complete your course (or if you join as an EMT), you will have semesterly hour requirements for shift time that will increase yearly, starting at 50 hours per semester. You will also be expected to continuously train and review your skills.
To take the EMT course, you must meet all requirements to join as a clinical member. In addition, you must be 18 years of age by the conclusion of the course and you must be available Mondays and Wednesdays 6:00 pm-10:00 pm and Saturdays 8:00 am-12:00 pm for lectures and labs.
The course is taught through University Hospitals EMS Institute, and students who successfully complete the course and national certification exams will be certified Emergency Medical Technicians in Ohio. More information can be found at uhems.org.
The EMT course is $750 and there are approximately $200 in additional costs (uniform, certifications, etc.). CWRU EMS is proud to offer need-based financial aid and a full-tuition scholarship. Please see the application for details.
Yes, many of our new current EMTs are certified in states other than Ohio. We will assist you in the process of attaining Ohio reciprocity. However, if you are interested in joining we do recommend you begin this process as early as possible. More information on Ohio reciprocity can be found at ems.ohio.gov/certifications-reciprocity.aspx.