EMS Week: Al Rusk

MOUNT AYR — The first person you meet when you call for an ambulance is most likely a paramedic. Paramedics work in pre-hospital, where they solve the puzzle of what is wrong and how to fix it. Al Rusk does this, also.

Rusk, a paramedic at Ringgold County Hospital (RCH) in Mount Ayr, has been with the emergency medical services department at the hospital for about 15 years.

Background

Ruck came into the medical field in a roundabout way. After growing up in the Fort Dodge area, he earned an undergraduate degree in fisheries and wildlife biology from Iowa State University in Ames.

Then, he earned a Master’s of Divinity from University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque. He was pastor at the small Methodist churches in Delmar and Elwood.

“I got on there as a volunteer fireman,” Rusk said. “That got me aware of the need. In the small towns, they rely on whoever can be there quick. And so, when we moved to Clearfield in 1989, it wasn’t too long after that that I took my first EMT (emergency medical technician) class.”

While living in Clearfield, Rusk was pastor for United Methodist Church in Clearfield and Sharpsburg for 12 years. Then, he did what fit him best at the time: he attended Mercy School of EMS and received his paramedic license in 1999. He did clinical time in places like Council Bluffs, Des Moines and West Des Moines.

“I actually started doing ride time with them (RCH) because you need that ride time to finish up your class, and then originally I was just going to do it as a volunteer,” Rusk said. “But, our service in Clearfield that I was a part of was not a paramedic-level service.”

In order to maintain the skills necessary as a paramedic, Rusk had to work on a paramedic-level service. Clearfield was an EMT-level service, and so he began working at the local hospital in Mount Ayr part time in 1999.

Paramedic

By 2001, Rusk was a full-time paramedic at RCH.

“This area kind of became home. It’s where my kids grew up, and when I was doing my clinicals, this was the closest place,” Rusk said. “At that time, they needed help here. Actually, I helped them as a paramedic on the acute floor for six years; they were so short of nurses.”

Now, those moments helping people in various departments at the hospital help break up the day for Rusk.

“In the small hospitals, as far as a paramedic, you’re not just stuck in your corner,” Rusk said. “If they need help on the floor, they call us. If they need help in X-ray, they call us. If they need help moving somebody to surgery, they call us.”

There are also some calls that stick with a person, and Rusk said his experience with ministry has equipped him to sort through those better than most.

“There are calls that I will remember the details of for the rest of my life. There are those expressions on people’s faces that you never forget,” Rusk said. “I think it might partly be because of my other career that I am able to process that in a way. Yeah, I remember that, I think about that, but it doesn’t overwhelm me in a negative way. It’s a process of life.”

Ringgold County

In 2014, more than 240,000 people were employed as EMTs or paramedics across the nation. In Iowa, there are between 1,610 and 3,200 paramedics employed, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The annual mean wage for southwest Iowa paramedics as of 2015 was $33,160. In comparison, the annual mean wage in Iowa for sales managers as of 2015 was $109,630, and for slaughterers and meat packers was $30,210.

But for Rusk, the pay is not what is important.

“When I first started in the ministry in eastern Iowa, it was in small communities. The one community was about the size of Clearfield, where we lived, Delmar, and I really enjoyed being involved in the smaller communities. More people know more people. People are there to help each other,” Rusk said. “It’s a community that’s integrated and working together, and that’s how this hospital feels for me. It’s more intimate.”

The burnout rate for a paramedic is between 10 and 15 years. Rusk, who is at the latter end, believes the variety at the hospital in Mount Ayr is one of the main reasons he has stayed where he is.

“There’s similarities and there’s differences. For the most part, we get all the same calls that they get in the big cities, we just don’t get as many of them,” Rusk said. “We do get the occasional gunshot wound. We get the traffic accidents. We get the same stuff. We don’t get anybody jumping off skyscrapers because we don’t have any. But, they don’t have the farm machinery accidents, the grain bin accidents.”

And, just like pieces of a puzzle to be fitted together to create the whole picture, there are calls where creativity is required.

“One thing that I think is interesting about being a paramedic where we are, and anywhere to some degree, you get those calls that are just like the last one, but you also get those calls, like, ‘Okay, I got to think this through,’” Rusk said. “It requires creative thinking because you’re the ones on the scene that have to solve the problem.”

Family

Rusk, 64, is married to Jan, an EMT at RCH, and together they have seven children.

Their children were involved in activities like 4-H, and Rusk enjoys hunting, fishing and camping. He has also been the part-time pastor at Tingley Christian Church in Tingley for about 10 years.

“It (Why I stay) has to do with family more than anything,” Rusk said. “If I didn’t have kids and now grandkids, I would probably be on the next plane to Alaska and I’d be a paramedic up there.”

But, Rusk loves his time in Ringgold County and the opportunity to help people across the county.