10/10/2026
PARAMEDICS HAVE TO 'MAKE QUICK DECISIONS'
Anyone looking for an exciting career may want to think about being a paramedic.
Paramedics provide emergency medical care – often saving a life – to sick or injured people in homes, at collisions and other emergency scenes.
They make critical decisions before transporting patients to hospital by ambulance.
They're definitely in demand.
“Within the next three years we estimate about 450 paramedic vacancies are expected within northeastern Ontario, so that's significant,” said Kate Kirkham, the Sault’s chief of paramedic services.
“In Sault Ste. Marie, we're looking to hire approximately 15 part-time paramedics to bring us up to our full roster and we do expect to have even more over the next few years,” Kirkham told SooToday.
She said the need for more paramedics will grow locally due to retirements and the growing complexity of the paramedic field.
“When I started we were around 36 full-timers and now we're up to 70. Programming is growing, needs are growing, so our service is keeping up,” Kirkham said.
“When I started we worked with six medications and a defibrillator and now it's over 30 medications that the paramedics can administer through the physician that oversees them. The work is more complicated. The patients are more complex.”
Kirkham said there's a lot more interest in letting paramedics work through those complexities at a pre-hospital level.
“It's been found that paramedics can actually address a lot of the issues before they even consider going to the hospital and that relieves the hospital of some of the pressures they're seeing in the emergency department.”
Kirkham said she and her crew are excited to see the launch of Sault College’s new two-year, four-semester paramedic program.
“We intend to have most of their students come through here for their clinical work,” Kirkham said.
The college has 20 students in the program and is targeting an intake of 40 in the fall of 2027.
There are three paramedic-specific courses this semester and two experienced primary care paramedics teaching.
Sault College will be recruiting additional paramedics to teach in the winter and there will be more paramedic-specific courses added.
Experienced paramedics can branch out into specialized work.
Adam Bering is involved in the Sault EMS community paramedic program.
“We deal with the older adults of the community. We try to keep them safely in their homes for as long as we can. We have an extra skill set on top of the 911 front line paramedics,” Bering said.
Community paramedics treat seniors with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), congestive heart failure, urinary tract infections and other serious conditions.
“We can give medications for conditions through our own medical director. We’ve been able to expand our skill set,” Bering said.
Being a paramedic appeals to Sam Dufault’s outgoing nature.
“A big part of paramedicine is socializing, communicating,” Dufault said, adding that she enjoys the challenge of working on the wide range of calls paramedics receive, from lift assists to serious trauma.
“A paramedic needs to be a really outgoing person. You need to be able to communicate with the public and be able to have a very approachable demeanour. When you're going to calls you're often going to people's worst moments and you want to be able to keep a calm, cool, collected persona,” Dufault said.
Dufault likes the job because she loves helping people.
“I would recommend the job, 100 per cent. It's an amazing job,” Dufault said.
“How many jobs do you know where you can communicate, provide care to people, and make a difference in someone's day? To be the difference when someone is having one of their worst moments and being able to help makes it very gratifying.”
Kirkham and Bering also recommend the job of paramedic for those who can handle it.
Apart from the successes in treating patients, paramedics see a lot of suffering and death.
They must be prepared to deal with that.
“It's a great career for the right person. I would say you have to have a certain level of resilience, along with compassion and wanting to help people,” Bering said.
The job is rewarding when there’s a good outcome.
“You're meeting people at possibly their worst times but you're offering them care and compassion. On the community paramedic side, we build more of a rapport with our patients,” Bering said.
“I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying the work.”
Prior to becoming chief, Kirkham said she loved being a paramedic on the frontline.
“A typical day when you’re out in an ambulance has its own excitement. You never quite know what's around the corner and it requires you to make quick decisions,” Kirkham said.
“You have to love people. You have to love the unknown. It's always changing and that part is exciting.”
By: Darren Taylor
SOOTODAY
