Study: EMT-Basic students largely ignorant of the profession

[JPINFV]

I don't think that education is the problem, so much as a symptom. Some diseases can be successfully treated with symptom relief though.

[nurse_neen]

I agree that the standards to pass a EMT-B class are pitiful. I had some younger students in my class that passed the exams and National Registry practicals, but I wouldn't want them working as EMTs on my worst enemy.

I believe though, that the quality of the class is dependent upon the instructor(s). The material presented would be cut and dry without someone to inject life into it. I was extremely fortunate to have several long time paramedics teaching my class, who made the long hours actually exciting to sit through, as they went off the beaten path of what's in the textbooks, and related their years of wisdom and experiences. I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, with a pretty good background in the medical field, and I definitely did not get bored in my EMT class. I think a good instructor makes a ton of difference in the quality of EMT-B produced.

[Dustdevil]

Sweet. But that doesn't have anything to do with the topic at hand.

Did your instructors cover any of the issues mentioned in the article (the basis of this thread), that they believe are inadequately covered by EMT classes? All of those things are "off the beaten path" as you put it, so maybe so?

[VentMedic]

I agree that the standards to pass a EMT-B class are pitiful. I had some younger students in my class that passed the exams and National Registry practicals, but I wouldn't want them working as EMTs on my worst enemy.

I believe though, that the quality of the class is dependent upon the instructor(s). The material presented would be cut and dry without someone to inject life into it. I was extremely fortunate to have several long time paramedics teaching my class, who made the long hours actually exciting to sit through, as they went off the beaten path of what's in the textbooks, and related their years of wisdom and experiences. I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, with a pretty good background in the medical field, and I definitely did not get bored in my EMT class. I think a good instructor makes a ton of difference in the quality of EMT-B produced.

I hope that doesn't include war stories of all their terriffic saves. That can be exciting and fun but also distracting from the material at hand. While it is good to know there are heroic ways of doing things, there are also basic concepts, no matter how boring, that must be taught.

EMS is unfortunately lacking in professional educators. Often it is the instructor with the most war stories to fill up the class hours that is voted most popular. Thus, we see people on the street that can believe they will see everything their instructor has seen and be rather surpised when they may not see some of those things their entire career no matter how long or short it is. The smarter ones may also find that they were not taught the basics to deal with the day to day calls and move on. The others may keep waiting for that one war story, not even realizing what they haven't been taught about patient care.