Tracyd1

Our trauma teams are awesome. The mood is always efficient and effective. The one thing they do have is a line of tape all the way around the bed, if your not doing a procedure then you can't cross the line. That works very well as far as congestion and then the doc just hollers out his questions to us when neccessary about the scene and so on. We do have a school of medicine here so there is always an over abundance of residents but they all do a good job with keeping it calm. The nurses will also tell the docs where to go and give them explicit directions on how to get to that location and what to do with themselves while they are there. Kind of funny to watch the residents get broke in so fast:)

I've been a medic for 15 years. I was trying to help people advance their education since I am an educator.

The sad thing here is that you are saying alot of things I agree with. I too am passionate about this field and have all of the respect in the world for all of the work it involves. I too am scared of people who think they know everything and get pissed off when they give the attitude that they don't need "more book learnin". I am in the middle of a situation and I don't know what to do. I'm sorry about the CNA thing, in this system that is where nursing starts is at the CNA level. I'm just trying to make you understand that I didn't enter this post for a war of words, I entered this for ideas from people in this line of work who may have already been down this road. That's all!

That is exactly what I was trying to avoid. Thanks for the cut downs. I do embrace education and teach EMS, I feel bad for the students that were in school and paid the community college tuition and now have to do it again. That comes to additional 2500.00 per person that rural squads and our local departments are having a hard time coughing up. That's all. It's not three months, it's a calendar year in class with six months of that being what they had in the EMT-I course. The clinical time has to be re-done as well. Now you work full-time, go to class two nights a week, do 30-40 hours of clinical time a week and your told to do it again. Let me ask you this, you have your nursing degree, what if you wanted your masters and you were told that your bachelors wasn't good enough and to start over at the CNA class. That's why the people at the I level are so aggravated. I just wanted to know if another state had been through this yet and it sounds like Texas might be on it's way. Why re-invent the wheel if someone has already done it? I'm sure with your experience that you are very wise and I'm not doubting that. Why the hostility?

They can't go ALS, to expensive and they have no tests. See what I mean. What is MR? Is that like our first responder level?

This is the third time I have started this post. I am new here and don't want to start a debate with anyone, but there are so many questions I have on this issue I don't know where to start. Does anyone have EMT-I levels in their state? If you do, is it a strong secure program or are you hearing that it's going away? We were just told by IDPH that if you are an EMT-I your hours no longer count and if you would like to be a medic you need to start over at the basic level and repeat hour for hour your clinical and class time because the curriculum no longer exists to go from I-P. Cost for the exam has risen and availability has declined, no one seems to have an answer for most questions that are asked, and 12 people have resigned (or taken a LOA for medical reasons) in the past year from IDPH. So far four services have closed and one went from ALS/ILS to BLS. These were all rural communities that wait a VERY long time for ALS. They are having difficulty scheduling with the national exam and the last I heard they still haven't announced the testing schedule at any level for 2007. I don't know whose fault that is and I'm not placing any blame for that reason. I am leaning toward IDPH but again- don't know. Enter stage left, Bloomington Fire Department. Had EMS thrown in their lap, can't upgrade your I's to medics, can't schedule tests in a timely fashion, can't get answers, the person you spoke with two months ago and approved it DOESN'T WORK HERE ANYMORE. Can you see the frustration now? They are not asking for a "test for the retards", they want answers and they/we all deserve them. Please let me know if your area has an I program and if you have problems with it.

The story in the pantagraph was paraphrased poorly. There are many issues at hand here and the fire service is getting EMS because the ambulance companies are closing. I'm curious as to the status of the EMT-I curriculum in your areas. Does it still exist, and if it does is there a threat of it's demise within the next couple of years. We have EMT-I's across our region that are being made to start their education over from the basic level if they would like to become paramedics. I would appreciate your information from your region.