What We Do

Smith College Emergency Medical Services (commonly called SCEMS - pronounced "semz") is a strictly volunteer student organization on the Smith College campus devoted to providing emergency medical care. Smith College is a small, all-women's liberal arts college, located in Western Massachusetts. Its enrollment consists of 2,600 undergraduates studying in Northampton, MA, and 250 undergraduates studying elsewhere. Smith is part of the Five College Consortium in the Pioneer Valley, which also consists of Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts. As a result of the Consortium, Smith shares a consolidated Public Safety office with Mount Holyoke College and Hampshire college.

If a medical emergency occurs on campus while SCEMS is on duty, and Public Safety is contacted, a First Responder and an Emergency Medical Technician are dispatched to the scene. There, both squad members administer the appropriate medical care according to our training, and eventually transfer the patient to Health Services or Cooley-Dickinson Hospital, if necessary. We are on duty from 7pm to 7am Thursday through Sunday.

SCEMS tries to organize a First Responder course every fall semester, given enough interest in the course. We are also affiliated with a EMT course held at Amherst College over J-Term. These courses are not funded by SCEMS, but funds are available through various offices throughout the College. Susan Zachary, the Executive Assistant in the Dean of the College Office, has been especially helpful to SCEMS members when looking for course funding.

Although SCEMS is currently only on duty on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 7 pm to 7 am, we are looking to be able to expand our hours to weekdays, so we can assist in the event of more emergency medical issues. We are also able to provide Emergency Medical Technicians and First Responders at sporting, charity or party events. Past events we have covered include: the Pink concert, Run for Women's Health, house parties, rugby games and Winter Carnival. If you would like to request a SCEMS squad at your next event, please fill out a SCEMS Standby Request form and submit it to the address on the form. Please note that given personnel constraints, we might not always be able to provide standby.

SCEMS currently uses vans generously provided by the Student Government Association. Our funding is limited, and our equipment is expensive. We are always looking for funds for better equipment. We recently upgraded our blood pressure cuffs, adding two new automatic blood pressure cuffs to our equipment lists. SCEMS squad members are not paid, and are provided with Smith College Emergecy Medical Services t-shirts to wear when on duty.

We also sponsor Training Practice Days for squad members, as well as CPR recertification programs. In the future, SCEMS hopes to be a part of campus drills, such as building evacuations, and to develop study groups aimed at practicing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the EMT-B class.

If you are interested in taking a First Responder or EMT-B class with us, or if you would like to become involved with SCEMS, feel free to contact. We're friendly - promise!