Waterbury Ambulance to be a medical training hub

December 20, 2025 | By Lisa Scagliotti

After settling into its new station in downtown Waterbury this summer, Waterbury Ambulance Service is now taking on a new role as a regional training hub for emergency medical personnel and healthcare workers. 

Classroom space at Waterbury Ambulance Service’s new station on Demeritt Place will be used for training courses. Photo by Gordon Miller

The nonprofit agency has begun a new partnership with Vermont EMS Academy, based in Newfane, to offer continuing education for healthcare professionals, emergency responders and community members throughout the region. 

Waterbury Ambulance is now based in a new state-of-the-art station on Demeritt Place off South Main Street in Waterbury. The new facility has ample classroom space that makes it an attractive location for VEMSA to offer trainings, explained Ambulance Chief Zach Rounds. 

Courses offered will include the popular American Heart Association Basic Life Support and CPR/AED/First Aid for community members. More advanced courses that many healthcare professionals need to take for continuing education purposes also will be taught at the Waterbury location. These include Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Prehospital Trauma Life Support, Advanced Medical Life Support, and Tactical Emergency Casualty Care. 

Rounds said the aim is to provide various training opportunities in a location convenient to individuals in Central Vermont and even the greater Burlington area and other communities in northern Vermont. Rounds worked on setting up the collaboration after joining Waterbury Ambulance earlier this year. He previously worked at Rescue Inc. in Brattleboro, where the VEMSA training center was created after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drew Hazelton is operations chief at Rescue Inc. He said the Waterbury classes are just beginning and VEMSA will schedule its offerings based on demand. He pointed out that many of the classes his organization can provide are courses that a variety of healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses, physician assistants, etc. – need to take regularly, as well as emergency response personnel. 

“We have no script,” Hazelton said. “We will tailor our schedule with a frequency based on what the area is looking for.”

Those who sign up will get to train using some of the latest equipment, too. VEMSA has a 36-foot-long tow-behind mobile unit that it will bring to Waterbury, offering course attendees “realistic hands-on simulation” in a space that can be set up for a variety of functions depending on the class objectives, Hazedlton explained. 

“We have a mannequin that bleeds and talks to you,” he said. The simulators allow students to do mock patient evaluations, and the sessions are recorded, so they can review and discuss their results. “It’s much like how a pro sports team will go over their game videos to see where they can improve,” Hazelton said. 

The unit will likely be used in Waterbury in January, he said. 

Rounds noted that VEMSA instructors will conduct the classes at the Waterbury Ambulance station’s satellite training center. The first slate of classes has already begun with online registration open for upcoming sessions, he said. Courses are listed online on the VEMSA website with a link from waterburyambulance.org as well. 

Rounds said the ambulance service is eager to see its new facility used both as a 24/7 first-response station and an educational hub for the community. “We’re excited to have a training community under our roof,” he said. “The training culture will become more ingrained with people from the community and the surrounding area coming to our station.” 

Rounds said Waterbury Ambulance will not need to do any hiring to staff the VEMSA partnership. Hosting the trainings should be a boost to the ambulance service’s budget, he noted. Just how much will depend on enrollment. “It will be based on demand,” he said.  

In addition to the VEMSA courses, Waterbury Ambulance crew members will also continue to hold trainings at the station for first aid, CPR and other programs as they always have done, Rounds noted. 

The new partnership to add medical training in Waterbury comes as the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre has recently announced it is increasing its course offerings for emergency medical education. The career center, located at Spaulding High School, is now working with Vermont EMS Districts 6 and 8 to offer licensure-level EMS courses. These include Emergency Medical Technician, Advanced Emergency Medical Technician and Medic certification programs. 

Rounds said the training offered in Waterbury will not duplicate the career center programs. “We will direct any new (EMT) students to CVCC,” he said. 

Hazelton agreed. “We’re trying to augment existing systems in place,” he said.