GREER, S.C. (WSPA) – Allison Nelson said she left a good job years ago to become a homemaker and eventually a mother of two children.
Ten years later, she was ready to join the workforce again.
Nelson chose to become a paramedic, just like her husband. He’s a paramedic with the Maulin Fire Department.
“He always enjoyed his work, and it was something that I thought I would enjoy as well and I very much have,” Nelson, who is a paramedic now with the Greer Fire Department, said.
While it may have been an easy decision for Nelson to make, going through the training to be certified as a paramedic wasn’t in the least.
“It’s difficult. It’s two years of really having to manage time well and being somewhere all the time,” according to Nelson. “The first day of paramedic school they say ‘put a picture on your refrigerator so your family remembers what you look like’ (laughs) It’s challenging, but it’s worth it.”
Nelson was hired by the Greer Fire Department, where she does ALS – Advanced Life Support – while working out of a QRV – a Quick Response Vehicle.
She’s not a certified firefighter, but exclusively devotes her service to urgent medical care.
“There are a couple of other fire departments that run ALS response, but they run off their engine,” she told 7NEWS. “We have an SUV that we run medical only out of. So, it lessens the load of the firefighters because we are able to run all the medical calls.”
That kind of service is needed in a city like Greer to meet its growing demand.
The population of the city grew 69% from 2010 to 2020.
“My favorite part about our service is (that) our citizens are the absolute number one priority.”
