My response will not do justice to the question but I will try. We need to get out of the mind set that we have about the role of paramedics. Paramedics are not just 911 junkies looking for the next great story to share with their next partner. We are expanding and increasing the roles we play in public health. Paramedics are becoming force multipliers in an ever shrinking health care provider population. We are performing vital roles in keeping health care institutions open as we fill positions formerly held by other members of the allied health teams that extend the care people need.
That being said we can only raise the bar and ensure we are up to the task, mentally and educationally. We must realize and ensure minimum standards are adopted in our paramedic programs. Paramedics should have a formal A&P education from a biology professor, english from an english professor, and so on. We should ensure our instructors are experienced and remain so. Professional development for instructors should include time allotted for practicing what they teach in the street in real time to real patients. Student should earn admission and meet minimum entrance requirements to get into programs and I think the should be EMT basics with ride time experience and at least 500 hours of patient care prior to starting a paramedic program. We have all learned things from one teacher that was re-instructed by another and that will probably never change.
i think the prior exposure and pre-requisite would convince the candidate of their sincerity and motivation which they will surely need.
The bar needs to be raised and we are the ones to raise it. We should all embrace technology that provides definitive positive patient outcomes and reduces the cost to us all for the overall treatment of our patients. CPAP, Capnography, 12-lead interpretation should be our standards and we should embrace interventions to come. At a recent seminar I discovered that their are many advancements in EMS that will be field ready in the near future. We will be doing things that will require our profession to be better trained, better educated, and better prepared to function in the field and make the difference in the lives of those who call us because they can not afford to be seen be any one else. The minimum standards are what you stand your program on the program standards are what you want your students to be.
It should be a goal to become a paramedic, a lofty goal, and it should be harder to be a paramedic than it is to become one.