This research seeks to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel with the knowledge and tools to identify pathogens in the EMS environment and determine best cleaning practices for minimizing their spread to patients, EMS workers, their families and the general public. The study aims to develop rapid, simple and flexible DNA sequencing based methods for identifying bacterial and viral pathogens on-site in EMS environments. The developed methodology is intended to be feasibly performed by EMS workers with minimal training. Pathogen identification will help to characterize occupational health risks.