NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Robby Frantz, Buck Hill, and Terry Hill are used to working in high-stress situations as physicians at Norman Regional Hospital.

Dr. Robby Frantz serves as medical director of emergency services. Dr. Terry Hill practices emergency medicine, and Dr. Buck Hill is an anesthesiologist. The fast-paced environment is nothing unfamiliar to the trio.

Before they wore the white doctor's coat and carried a stethoscope, they were Norman police officers who worked in the Emergency Medical Services unit. The Norman Police Department was in charge of the ambulance service from 1978 to 1995.

"We were the EMS division," Frantz said. "You had to go to the police academy and do everything a police officer did."

The trio are among a group of Norman police officers who later went to medical school. Others officers turned doctors are Cary Fisher, Ed Weathers, Rick Blubaugh, Pam Conard, Brock Lutz, Gus Gonzales, Steve Feher and Steve Crabtree.

Frantz said joining the police department's EMS division wasn't easy. Each applicant was required to pass written and practical exams, a psychological test, polygraph and undergo an extensive background search.

"Once you got hired, you had to go to the police academy. Then there was field training, a minimum of six months," he said.

Frantz was a paramedic for the Norman Police Department from 1985-1992 and Terry Hill joined the department in 1980 and left in 1988. Buck Hill's career with the department lasted from 1989 to 1995. Frantz and Buck Hill also served together on the tactical team.

Buck Hill said training as a police officer and paramedic came with its advantages.

"We knew how to preserve a crime scene," he said.

Terry Hill said EMS workers could carry a firearm but that posed a threat to the medic and patient.

"We didn't need our guns anyway because a police officer was there if needed," he said.

Frantz said the job required each person to be at his or her best during each 24-hour shift.

"Expectations were really high," he said.

The doctors said there is one person who had the highest expectations of the EMS division: Capt. Kim Moore.

"He motivated us," Terry Hill said.

Frantz agreed.

"He motivated us to our highest level of training," Frantz said. "He's the one who demanded so much of medics."

Moore said he joined the Norman Police Department in 1978 and retired with the rank of captain in 2000. He remembers the days of working with Drs. Hill and Frantz.

"I had been a cop and had been promoted and took over the medical services," Moore said. "Don Holyfield was the chief. We ran rescue operations and the emergency medical services."

Moore said he held the administrative job and occasionally responded to calls. He also had been a paramedic for a time.

"It was just like running any other bureau," Moore said of the EMS unit. "It was a very high performance operation. We hired good people and it was very difficult to get on."

Moore said EMS workers did a great job of helping and encouraging each other.

"I was responsible for hiring them, but they were promoting each other and demanding high performance out of each other," he said.

Norman Police Department Capt. Glenn Dobry also worked with Frantz, Buck Hill and Terry Hill as paramedic. He joined NPD when the police department took over emergency medical services.

Dobry said the combination of EMS and police department worked out remarkably well.

"That combination showed a lot of closer interaction than with EMS and fire services because so much of the time, we responded to a lot of scenes that required police actions," he said.

He said as the EMS division matured, medical workers and administrators wanted to make it the best service in Norman.

"With that leadership, we hired a lot of good people and did some remarkable stuff," Dobry said. "We provided some of the best care around."

Dobry said they had such a great core of paramedics that those who desired to apply themselves had the basic knowledge to get into medical school.

"They knew what the field was like to work in stressful situations and saving lives," he said. "In that part, they were ahead of the curve."

The high expectations and experience in the medical services field prompted the paramedics to explore professions as physicians.

"I don't think any of us thought we would become doctors," Frantz said. "We just all sort of thought it was a fun job. We wanted to be affiliated with a city with a great service."

Buck Hill said his background as a paramedic was a useful tool for applying to medical school as he watched his co-workers leave the department.

"Every year someone was going on to medical school," he said.

He said wearing the police badge and caring for patients gave him self confidence.

"I would not have gone into medical school if I hadn't done this," he said.

Terry Hill said the police department encouraged its employees to take college courses and advance their education. Workers could trade shifts with each other.

"They allowed us to trade time and go to medical school," he said.

Frantz said the city also offered to cover some of the bill.

Once all three paramedics left the department and went off to medical school, choosing a field to study was easy for two of them. Buck Hill wanted to become an anesthesiologist, and Terry Hill knew emergency medicine was the area for him.

Frantz said making the choice was a bit harder for him.

"I liked everything in medical school," he said. "I couldn't narrow it down. I liked psychiatry, older people, kids, sewing up wounds."

So Frantz came up with an idea.

"Why narrow it down?" he asked himself. "Broaden it."

Frantz decided to pursue a career in emergency medicine.

All three doctors are happy with the decisions they made.

"When you come into work, you're in," Frantz said.

He said it's common to work a 10-12 hour shift in a day and care for a variety of ailments.

"You're very busy," he said. "It's whatever comes through the door."

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Information from: The Norman Transcript, http://www.normantranscript.com