I n May of 1995, the Director of OKCCC’s Emergency Medical Technology program set out in search of national accreditation. Two and a half years later, Romeo Opichka’s search ended as OKCCC’s EMT program became the first in Oklahoma to receive national accreditation. On Feb. 3 and 4, the Joint Review Committee on the Education for the EMTParamedic conducted a site visit at OKCCC. Opichka said the long and grueling process of seeking out and receiving accreditation took many hours of paperwork and phone calls as well as an up-close and personal site visit from the national committee members. “It was like being under a microscope,” Opichka said. During the site visit, committee members observed many students while on clinical rotations. Popularly termed “clinicals,” these rotations take place in various medical related areas. Through these clinicals participants gain firsthand experience in many areas — from ambulance fieldwork with EMSA to the operating room at Edmond Regional Hospital. Opichka said the clinical visits were where the program got its highest marks. “One of the committee members was just flabbergasted at the sight of our students getting to perform intubations,” said Opichka, of the reaction to the difficult resuscitation proceParamedic program accredited