Paramedic
MedStar Fort Worth
“I’d always been interested in health care, so that’s what I wanted to pursue when I went back to school to do something different. I actually have a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from TWU, but I had worked for seven years as an accounts manager. I had a friend who was a paramedic with MedStar, and he suggested that I check out becoming a paramedic as a new career.
“What I love about my job is that it’s never the same thing any two days in a row. You never know what you’re going to get. It’s an exciting job — really challenging, because you get to think and use your brain on each different situation that comes up.
“My EMS education at Brookhaven trained me to be able to do what I do every day. All of the instructors gave us such good fundamentals to practice in this career field. Richard Campbell would always make a point to say, ‘You really need to know this,’ and he was always right. He’s a great teacher with such a wealth of knowledge.
“It’s hard to pinpoint the best part of my education. Some things you just can’t learn from books, and there are a lot of seasoned instructors at Brookhaven. I’ve talked to people coming out of other programs, and they weren’t as well prepared for the job as I am.
“We had a lot of hands-on skills practice in our classes, especially in patient contact and assessment. That practical approach put me ahead on the job because I’m really comfortable with all of the skills that were drilled into me over and over at Brookhaven.
“To succeed in this job, you have to be a free thinker and a self-motivator. You also have to like the adrenaline rush but still be able to maintain a level head under pressure. I couldn’t do what I do without the EMS education that I got at Brookhaven.”
Angie works for MedStar, an ambulance service that answers all 911 calls for the city of Fort Worth and 14 surrounding cities. Angie Knight earned her Paramedicine certificate at Brookhaven College in August 2007. She is a nationally registered EMT-paramedic (NREMT-P).