Alumni
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Kenny Ulrich
Kenny Ulrich is a member of OCC's class of 2020. Now he's working as an EMT on the front line of the fight against COVID-19.

Kenny Ulrich, '20 knows the dangers of COVID-19. He's seen it up close while working as an Emergency Medical Technician and Field Training Officer for American Medical Response (AMR) of Central New York. "I've had a couple of calls where I thought to myself 'I have a bad feeling about that one.' Both times the gut feeling has been right. Those patients tested positive for COVID-19." Each exposure to COVID -19 was followed with a 14-day monitoring period. To date he's had a total of five confirmed exposures. Thanks to proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and new precautions, he has not gotten the virus.

Life changed significantly for Ulrich just a few months ago. In mid-March as the number of cases of the virus were increasing exponentially, his final semester in OCC's Fire Protection Technology degree program was being converted from in-person to online classes. Outside class, where Ulrich works for both AMR and his hometown Village of Sherburne Ambulance, new policies and procedures were immediately put in place to protect both patients and employees. Those included the decontamination of each ambulance before and after each shift. If a known or suspected COVID-19 patient was transported, that ambulance and its crew would be taken out of service and decontaminated before returning to duty.

The virus also changed the way in which Ulrich and his colleagues helped patients. "Rather than entering a residence without question, we interviewed patients from an appropriate distance before approaching them so we would know if they were at risk of carrying the virus." They were also required to wear full disposable surgical gowns, gloves, an N95 respirator, safety glasses, and a face shield.

OCC's Fire Protection Technology degree program prepared Ulrich for his new normal. "I learned a lot about incident management and how emergency service command structure works. There is a chain of command which must be followed for every aspect of the job. By learning how it works I am able to operate in the field with confidence and be able to interact with co-workers, other agencies, and patients in a professional manner."

Ulrich learned well at OCC. He was named the top student in Fire Protection Technology and completed work toward his degree. In the fall he will transfer to SUNY Cobleskill where he plans to earn his Paramedic certificate. His goal is to become a firefighter or paramedic with a career fire department.

Keywords
OCC
Onondaga Community College