LMU-DCOM students pride themselves on their community involvement, seeking new programs and finding needs within the rural community. With a population at 24 percent below poverty level and 14.8 percent without health insurance, Claiborne County, Tennessee, is a community in need of public health service.⁴ Relocating from all over the world, LMU-DCOM students use their previous experiences in health care volunteering to provide a foundation for numerous startup programs. LMU-DCOM students’ involvement in the rural community varies from health education in elementary schools to cardiopulmonary resuscitation instruction in high schools to emergency service departments.⁵ In particular, the local emergency service departments, specifically volunteer fire departments, suffer from recruiting and retention difficulties based on the physical and training demands without financial compensation. Often, volunteers become fatigued and discouraged.

Service Beyond Medicine

Due to local retention difficulties, CGVFD was threatening to close its doors. Medical students living in the community reached out and recruited students with previous emergency service experience. Located only three miles away from LMU-DCOM, CGVFD is situated in the town of Cumberland Gap. The CGVFD is responsible for the town of Cumberland Gap (population of 483), the town of Tiprell (population of approximately 500), and Lincoln Memorial University dormitories (population of 228). Instead of being staffed by local volunteers, CGVFD is entirely staffed by LMU-DCOM students. Since medical students have two years of didactic training at LMU-DCOM and travel to rotation sites outside of the region for the last two years of school, CGVFD relies heavily upon constant training and community outreach. Upon agreeing to volunteer, student firefighters undergo a required 16-hour basic fire course followed by a 64-hour basic firefighting course provided by the state of Tennessee. Together, these 80 hours of instruction provide the minimum training necessary to work as a firefighter in Tennessee. However, constant in-house and local training is required to maintain a skill level well above the minimum standards.

CGVFD has become a robust and dependable presence in the town, providing emergency and fire response. CGVFD is solely composed of 12 medical students who are constantly on call to respond to 911 emergencies. Working in conjunction with local fire, police, and emergency medical services (EMS) in surrounding counties, CGVFD also participates in mutual aid training and response with local departments. In addition to writing for state grant funding and hosting community pancake breakfasts and yard sales to raise funds to maintain and purchase necessary equipment, the medical students also install fire alarms that have been donated by Claiborne County for Cumberland Gap and Tiprell residents to improve the health and safety of its residents.