Earlier this month, two paramedics with Cumberland County EMS made history as the first all-female team to win the NC Emergency Medical Services Expo’s annual EM Today Paramedic Competition in its 33-year history.

Paramedics Hannah Thompson and Jessica Haines represented Cumberland County EMS as one of the top six teams from across the state on May 4 at Greensboro. The expo is an educational conference for paramedics, EMTs and county emergency services directors to sharpen their skills with presentations from faculty from across the state and the U.S.

“We’ve very proud of Hannah and Jessica’s win,” said Brian Langston, Corporate Director Patient Logistics and Mobile Integrated Health. “These competitions prepare our paramedics to improve the treatment of real patients in our community and set the benchmarks for our paramedics to have a high level of medical knowledge.”

The Cumberland EMS team outperformed the 2024 returning champions, as well as four other regional champion duos who earned their respective spots following competitions in March in Brunswick, Catawba, Cumberland, Johnston and Surry counties. Those teams included Mecklenburg EMS and Whiteville Rescue as well as two Surry County EMS crews.

Originally from Wyoming, Haines has been with Cape Fear Valley for a year and became a paramedic in September, but she has been in EMS for over two years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Campbell University. Before going to college, Haines was a member of the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also a mother with a three-year-old son.

“When Hannah and I said we were going to do the competition, we did it to learn and have fun,” Haines said in a press release. “We had no expectation of actually winning. Then we won the regionals, and it got a little more serious. When we were training, we learned that no all-female team had ever won the competition, and that no Cape Fear Valley team had ever won, either. That was our motivator, once we found that out.”

Thompson is originally from New Mexico, where she previously worked as a paramedic before moving to Fayetteville. She’s been with Cumberland County EMS since 2022 and also worked in Cape Fear Valley Medical Center’s Pediatric Emergency Department for a year. She holds an associate’s degree in emergency medical services and a bachelor’s degree in organismal biology. Additionally, she is an adjunct instructor with Fayetteville Technical Community College, where the two spent much of April practicing complicated patient and logistic scenarios before the final competition.

“From complex cardiac cases, extensive traumatic injuries, and a plethora of complicated overdoses, we used scenarios that always had two if not three or more patients,” Thompson said in a press release. “We fine-tuned our assessment skills and critical thinking. Our dedication and shared perfectionistic traits made our teamwork and patient care smooth and methodical.”

At the preliminary competition site, teams are judged and scored in three categories: a practical scenario, a short written examination, and professionalism.  During the final competition, teams are graded on professionalism, didactic knowledge and their clinical management as they face realistic scenarios, environments and simulations within a set time limit.

This year’s scenario involved managing three critical patients at the scene of a high school football game. They initially had to manage a seriously injured player with a collapsed lung on the field. Soon after the coach became ill, after having taken too much of his blood pressure medication. Finally, an argument broke out between the inebriated father and mother of the injured player, resulting in the mother being stabbed. Competing teams were challenged to respond to all of these individual crises as part of the mock emergency.

"These incredible EMS teams work hard all year to prepare for this event and for their day-to-day duties,” Tom Mitchell, chief of the N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services said in a press release.. “Just like in this competition, these paramedics never know what they may face when responding to the needs of North Carolinians. Their extensive training results in improved quality of care for all residents and visitors who may experience illness or injury in an emergency situation."