Dear Applicant,

As your Course Coordinator and lead EMT instructor, I would like to formally welcome you to LifeStart Training & Consulting, LLCs EMT course. This course is open to the public as well as those students referred to us by Longhorn EMS UT student association and other student organizations throughout the UT community. This course is open to the public, so all are welcome to apply. Please refer all questions regarding the specifics of the classroom portion of the course to me, Steven Villavicencio. All admissions related questions or questions about your clinical experiences in this course should be directed at your Admissions & Clinical Coordinator, Antonio (Tony) Martinez.

I will briefly introduce myself. I have been actively involved in EMS and EMT/Paramedic education for over twenty-four years. For almost all of those years, I have been serving as lead instructor for Austin Community College’s EMT program. I am a full-time Paramedic faculty and EMT Course Coordinator for Austin Community College.  Oh, and yes, I am also a UT graduate!  Hook’em!  I am very well aware of the heavy college workload you may be undertaking. Over the years I have helped thousands of students achieve their goals of becoming an EMT and Paramedic, and advancing to other levels of education including nursing school, PA school, and medical school.  I look forward to bringing my experience with me to your campus to help you achieve yours. I bring with me a team of highly qualified individuals to help achieve your dream.

Why choose LifeStart?

LifeStart’s first-time NREMT EMT examination pass rates have ranged between 98-100% since we started this program, making it one of only two EMT schools who graduate over 40 students a year in the state with first-time pass scores above 90%. This is out of 127 EMT schools across the state.

COURSE DYNAMICS / WORKLOAD EXPECTATIONS

This course is very unique from most you have probably taken in your college studies. This is a course that prepares you to be eligible to sit for the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technician exam. This exam is the national level exam that all EMT’s must take to be certified in the State of Texas. It is my job, and the job of my great support staff to get you there! Although many of you are using this course as a stepping stone to higher levels of medical education, the life-saving skills you will learn in this course will stay with you for years to come. If you are taking this course without having a medical terminology course or an Anatomy/Physiology course under your belt, you may find this course a little extra challenging but we cover all the med terms and A& P necessary as part of the course. We will cover all 46 chapters of the book (hey, it’s Emergency Medicine.. Everything counts). You can expect to read between 3-4 chapters per week. Although the workload is moderate, students absolutely love the subject matter and feel it compliments their current pre-PA and pre-medical studies.

CLINICALS / FIELD INTERNSHIPS OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME

There will be about 40 clinical contact hours that must be done outside of this course. The majority of clinical sites will be in the greater Austin area, but some include clinicals in some of the surrounding counties. Students

must provide their own transportation for clinical rotations or be able to carpool, if available.

Relying on public transportation may cause you to be late for the clinical and could lead to a probation status if late. In previous courses, students without a form of transportation were easily able to carpool with other students to some of these distant clinical sites. Clinical rotations are planned at various locations to enhance the students’ educational experience utilizing their new skills and knowledge learned in the EMT course.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance is required. This is not like many college courses where you can come and go as you please. We will be taking attendance daily. A student will not be allowed to miss more than 10% of the entire course. This equates to approximately 3 class periods. Again, keep in mind the dynamics of the course. You will be learning valuable emergency medicine. Missing this information could have a devastating effect on the patients you will provide care for in the future. If you already know you will be out for a single weekend, it will put you two class periods behind. There is no exception to this rule. We do not have excused or unexcused absences. You are either present or absent. You will be removed from the program for exceeding absences. I have to attest that my students were in class for 90% of the time or greater.

You will receive your course schedule on the first day of class.

 INSURANCE STATEMENT

LifeStart Training & Consulting, LLC carries student liability insurance as required by clinical contract agreements. LifeStart Training & Consulting, LLC does not insure any student for accidental injury, illness, or any accident sustained by underlying or pre-existing health conditions. It is required by certain clinical sites that all students be personally insured for health. LifeStart Training & Consulting, LLC places this responsibility on the student and cannot be held liable for injury or illness to a student as a result of the daily activities, including clinical internships, while participating in this course.

 OTHER COURSE COSTS

You will receive along with this letter a copy of the course costs. We try to do everything possible to keep the costs as low as possible. You will find these costs very competitive to other private EMT schools in the area. It is a fact! There are just lots of associated expenses involved with getting EMT certified since you have to do clinicals in EMT uniforms and have the appropriate equipment, not to mention all the registration fees. The fee chart will give you a good idea of total expected investment required for this course. There will be less expensive alternatives to the full EMT uniform, which can significantly reduce the fees by around a hundred dollars. We will discuss this in the class.

TEXTBOOK (eTEXT AND MYBRADY ACCESS INCLUDED IN TUITION AND FEES)

Mistovitch, J. and Karren, K. Prehospital Emergency Care, 12th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education (2023).

PAYMENT IN FULL & REFUND POLICY

Once you receive your full acceptance letter from Tony, you will need to click on the link and pay for the course. Full payment is expected no later than 2 weeks before classes start to reserve your seat and for books to be ordered. The following is a breakdown of our refund policy. There is a 3.5% processing fee for all requested refunds that will be deducted from the below percentages. Note: No refunds on MyLab/etext once the code has been issued nor on equipment once physically issued to student. The $50 application fee is non-refundable.

Through end of day, first class day (Zoom)  100% refund

Through end of day, second class day (Zoom)   75% refund

Through end of day, third class day (HOFT)   50% refund

After third class day    No refunds

*A class day consists of a scheduled class time, whether face to face or virtually.

SUMMARY AND NEXT ACTION REQUIRED OF YOU

The best way to tell if you would enjoy this class is to ask fellow Longhorn EMS members who have already taken our LifeStart course. They will tell you that we will offer you an experience not found in many other places. So are you interested? If so, please submit your application as soon as possible.

We expect this next class to be full, so the sooner you can register and complete all the steps of the application process, the sooner we can guarantee your seat!

Seats are not reserved until you have full approval from Tony Martinez and you have paid your registration costs. I look forward to working with you soon!

APPLICATION FEE INFORMATION

APPLICATION FEE: Any student wishing to submit an application for LifeStart to process will need to pay a $50 application fee. This fee will be credited towards the final tuition costs if the student decides to attend. If a student wishes to drop enrollment prior to the start of class or during the refund period (first three days – see refunds schedule) then this $50 fee is non-refundable. This fee will be invoiced after the application is received by our system. 

You can apply online HERE.

Sincerely,

Steven Villavicencio,

AASEMST, BA, BS, LP/NRP

EMT Course Coordinator

[email protected]