Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a non-profit higher education institution with the mission of equipping and empowering students to excel in healthcare careers, hosted a hyper-realistic vehicle collision and trauma simulation event for UMA students training to be the next generation of Emergency Medical Technicians. This simulation included “injured parties” from a bicycle and car accident, plus the arrival of rescue crews from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue as well as Tampa General Hospital’s Aeromed helicopter service landing at the UMA Tampa Center campus.

UMA EMT students were tasked with responding to the collision site, assessing injured patients stuck in vehicles, prioritizing patient injuries, preparing them for treatment and transporting them safely to Fire Rescue teams and the Aeromed helicopter. Patients suffered simulated injuries including chest pain and cardiac arrest symptoms.

“We were so proud of our EMT students for accepting this challenge and tackling rapid-fire tasks to safely care for these patients in the highest-stress form of environment – and they performed wonderfully,” said Mike Massaro, UMA’s EMT Program Director. “Our communities so very much need this next generation of EMTs, and we are thrilled with how they succeeded.”

This training event comes as the United States is facing a severe shortage of healthcare workers, perhaps most alarmingly among emergency healthcare workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare field is projected to have 1.9 million job openings each year, on average, from 2022 to 2032. Here in Florida the challenges are exacerbated by Florida’s growing and aging population, which means the demand for healthcare is expanding at the same time the pool of care providers is evaporating at an substantial rate.

UMA is responding by crafting specialized allied health curriculum and training, and by working directly with employer partners to understand their talent needs. It then shapes training programs in innovative ways to prepare qualified graduates in the most-needed positions to be ready to start working on day one.

Wednesday’s EMT simulation event was a highlight of a larger gathering of 400-plus UMA teammates at UMA’s Tampa Center. "This event was a wonderful opportunity for our team to gather and shine a light on our esteemed community partnerships and innovative workforce solutions that address evolving industry needs. Through these efforts, we continue to support our mission of empowering learners and building a stronger healthcare workforce,” April Neumann, Executive Vice President of Workforce Transformation.

As a non-profit educator with learners across the country, UMA works every day to expand access to healthcare education to non-traditional students, helping build the ranks of healthcare workers while providing employees with higher-quality, more fulfilling careers.