University should adopt medical amnesty
Editorial
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 10/18/07 at 1:09 AM PSTLast update: 10/19/07 at 1:28 AM PST
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It's an all too familiar occurrence in Santa Clara's residence halls: What starts off as a fun night becomes a potentially dangerous situation after a student has had too much to drink. As the situation worsens, the student's friends debate whether they should risk getting in trouble by making a call for help.
The decision to call the emergency medical technicians is a decision that could potentially save a student's life. It's a call that nobody should ever hesitate to make.
Undoubtedly, the recent increase in alcohol-related hospital transports and calls to EMTs for alcohol-related illnesses is alarming. But as administrators develop policy in an effort to curb dangerous student drinking, they should not get so caught up in creating and enforcing punitive measures that they forget what the primary concern of the alcohol policy should be: student safety.
Recently, the EMTs have expressed concerns that students aren't calling for help for fear that they might get their friends -- or themselves -- into trouble with the university. EMTs believe that the implementation of a medical amnesty program could help allay some of these fears.
Such a program would ensure that students wouldn't be punished for calling the EMTs in an alcohol-related emergency.
EMTs are constantly called by friends while off-duty, a situation in which they cannot legally provide help. It happens so often they have started recording how often they're called -- 43 times so far.
While the fear of punitive action may result in fewer EMT calls due to alcohol consumption, it could lead students to avoid medical treatment altogether.
As long as students can be punished after calling the EMTs for an alcohol-related emergency, the university should not expect a drop in EMT calls to serve as an accurate measuring stick for alcohol practices on campus.
Such a reduction may only show that more students are afraid of getting in trouble if they call an EMT for help.
The decision to call the emergency medical technicians is a decision that could potentially save a student's life. It's a call that nobody should ever hesitate to make.
Undoubtedly, the recent increase in alcohol-related hospital transports and calls to EMTs for alcohol-related illnesses is alarming. But as administrators develop policy in an effort to curb dangerous student drinking, they should not get so caught up in creating and enforcing punitive measures that they forget what the primary concern of the alcohol policy should be: student safety.
Recently, the EMTs have expressed concerns that students aren't calling for help for fear that they might get their friends -- or themselves -- into trouble with the university. EMTs believe that the implementation of a medical amnesty program could help allay some of these fears.
Such a program would ensure that students wouldn't be punished for calling the EMTs in an alcohol-related emergency.
EMTs are constantly called by friends while off-duty, a situation in which they cannot legally provide help. It happens so often they have started recording how often they're called -- 43 times so far.
While the fear of punitive action may result in fewer EMT calls due to alcohol consumption, it could lead students to avoid medical treatment altogether.
As long as students can be punished after calling the EMTs for an alcohol-related emergency, the university should not expect a drop in EMT calls to serve as an accurate measuring stick for alcohol practices on campus.
Such a reduction may only show that more students are afraid of getting in trouble if they call an EMT for help.
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