About me
James Garber, BSN, RN has been in EMS and Emergency Medicine for thirty years. He started in EMS when he was 16 years old! He obtained his nursing education at Owens Community College in 1993, then achieved his Bachelor’s Degree at Aspen University in Denver. His EMT training came from the University of Toledo EMS program in the mid 1990’s and his paramedic certification from Monroe Community College in 1998. He has worked in level-one trauma centers to small rural hospital emergency departments. James has also worked concurrently as a critical care transport nurse for twenty years and performed thousands of inter-facility transports, scene requests, and 911 calls. James started a mobile ICU program from the ground up in 2016 which was wildly successful in the region. He is an instructor for BLS, ACLS, PALS, ITLS, PEPP, and TCCC-MP. Currently, James is one of the two education specialists at ProMedica Air and Mobile. There, he is responsible for educating over one hundred EMT’s, EMT-P’s, and RN’s from basic life support to critical care, and retrieval concepts. Over the years, James’ focus evolved from being the best clinician he can be to more of a “caring for the caregiver” attitude.
James serves as a chaplain for the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, Carroll Township Fire and Rescue, Mid County EMS, and Portage Fire Department. At ProMedica, James developed the “Wing Team”. A group of like-minded co-workers who, after taking classes with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, adds a “layer of care” for the other frontline clinicians at ProMedica Air and Mobile. This team has been utilized several times after HALO (high acuity, low occurrence) incidents at PTN since its inception. This team is in addition to the skilled mental health professionals at the ProMedica Employee Assistance Program. James is also the Emergency Coordinator for the Ottawa County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, a unit that works with the county EMA to provide communications in times of disaster.
ProMedica Air and Mobile Education Department are staffed by Allan Slagle, NRP and James Garber, BSN, RN. Allan recently came to ProMedica from Stat MedEvac in Pittsburgh. Allan has over ten years of frontline EMS response experience as well as critical care air transport experience. His fresh, new ideas have elevated the standard of education at ProMedica Air and Mobile. James has over 30 years of EMS and ED experience. Together, they are responsible for educating over one hundred employees from EMT-B to the critical care RN level. The classes presented at NOVFA by ProMedica Air and Mobile will be completed by an array of either educators or highly qualified and experienced frontline paramedics and nurses/ paramedics.
