The dispatch call was vague: a 20-year-old woman was sick and needed help.
An oversized rig carrying a team of Anaheim firefighters rolled up to the modest apartment on the city’s west side, followed moments later by an ambulance driven by Victoria Morrison.
Morrison, a nurse practitioner, rushed to the woman’s bedside to take her vitals and ask a few questions to determine whether she needed to be taken to an emergency room, or could be treated in the comfort of her own home.
Given the symptoms she saw, Morrison advised the woman to visit a hospital.
“A lot of people call 911 because they’re scared,” Morrison said while walking back to the ambulance. “Sometimes they just need a medical professional to treat something small, like a stomachache. Other times they really do need to visit the emergency room.”
Morrison is the sole nurse practitioner working in the Anaheim Fire & Rescue’s Community Care Response Unit, which launched May 31 to treat at home low-level 911 medical calls, such as nausea or scrapes that require stitches. A nurse practicioner can also prescribe medicine.