Change in Title?

[SSG G-man]

Does anyone have a thought about changing the title Emergency Medical Technician? IT has often be stated here we need to be a "profession" as opposed to a "trade." Does anyone have thoughts on changing the title to something that might sound more professional than "technician"? I know this is going to raise some red flags, but it is just a thought. At the local automobile garage I have seen certificates on the wall proving someone there is a certified transmission technician, or carburetor Technician.

I am not sure what it should be, but "technician" just does not have the professional sound. I had thought "Emergency Medical Service Provider" or "Emergency Medical Care Provider"

[JakeEMTP]

I really don't have a problem with the term EMT-B, because quite frankly, anybody who wants to be one, can ( and I am one ). Where I do have a problem is when it comes to paramedic. I would be quite happy if the dropped the EMT-P and went with just Paramedic. After all, it's approx. 1100 hrs or more as opposed to 160 hrs, 2 years in some cases as opposed to, well , you get the picture.

I'm not slamming Basics, I am one currently. But really, Basic is more of a tech, don't you think?

[Ridryder 911]

Actually the EMT/ Paramedic has thought to drop the EMT porton nationally. This has been brought up for several years and still id debated. There is some discussion to change this, hopefully with the new NHTSA board. The EMT is accurate since it is actually at a technician level. Provider is to encompassing with a broad band of interpertation.

R/R 911

[Michael]

Interesting question. I tend to go along with those here who predict that public opinion will follow performance and qualifications, rather than a reshuffling of syllables. Part of the problem arises from insecure people can't feel up unless they're putting someone else down, instead of knowing that the service a person provides is not a sign of his or her essential worth, and that, cliche though it is, all our jobs depend on all other jobs (that is, jobs in which real work is accomplished). It would be nice if language didn't undergo continual inflation so that insecure people didn't feel impelled and [literally] entitled to co-opt the label of a "higher" rank, like trash collectors renaming themselves "sanitation engineers." Nowadays when a business card reads "Director of..." you can suspect that office-holder presides over a staff of one, namely himself. It would be nice to live in a society in which people were judged by the content of their character, to coin a phrase.

I don't think manipulating words can, so to speak, engineer respect. Positions that earn the most respect tend to have the simplest, most generic names. But the respect those names evoke in the public also shifts according to the perceived behavior of the most prominent practitioners. "Doctor," which literally means simply "teacher," is still pretty high these days, but its rank is slipping from what it was over the past few generations. Before the Hippocratic Oath's prohibition against harming the patient, doctors were regarded with fear as well as awe because they were in charge of sorcery as well as healing; a house-call might mean your days were numbered. So "Doctor" was once ambiguous, then, as a result of professional housecleaning rather than new terminology, climbed, and has now been slipping again and could slip still further. Good doctors will concede that that's not all bad; patient empowerment and autonomy means demanding that authority be supported by substance, and it also takes the burden off the practitioner to be superhuman. Because of many publicized misdeeds, "Lawyer" is not as high as it used to be, nor is "Priest." I always get suspicious when I hear when someone is an "Educator" rather than a teacher. And the honor assigned to a "Soldier" varies in exact proportion to how threatened by attack a population feels at any moment.

Personally, I'm happy with "Technician." It implies some mastery of technique, which is what you want when something hurts.

[SSG G-man]

All Valid points, thanks! It just something that had been running through my head recently as I sat in traffic. (My normal commute home from work is 90-120 minutes.) I thought I would throw it out and see what happened. I was thinking that as we talk of raising the the standards, making it more of a profession, we should change with the increased knowledge, training, etc.

In the past there were ambulance attendants, then training increased and the EMT was born. So I thought this might be another stepping stone.

I was not trying to earn respect with a name change, and I do not think it should occur now. I was thinking of it as part of the evolutionary process so many people here (Dust, rid among others) wish to occur.

Sarge, out

[Dustdevil]

It's already happening in some places in the US. Texas is doing it relatively appropriately. Tech school medics are still called "EMT-Paramedic," but degreed paramedics are "Licensed Paramedic" with a completely different patch that does not have "EMT" anywhere on it, nor does their cert card. It's a nice incentive to medics to pursue another level of education, addressing the rampant problem of medics who think since they are medics they no longer need to continue their education.

I would expect other states to follow. I would especially expect some sort of restructuring in those states that require a degree to be a paramedic, like Kansas.

But nobody with less than two years of FULL TIME college education should qualify for such credentials. If you don't have at least as much education as the glorified photographers we call x-ray techs, you still have a long ways to go.

[AnthonyM83]

I really don't have a problem with the term EMT-B, because quite frankly, anybody who wants to be one, can ( and I am one ). Where I do have a problem is when it comes to paramedic. I would be quite happy if the dropped the EMT-P and went with just Paramedic. After all, it's approx. 1100 hrs or more as opposed to 160 hrs, 2 years in some cases as opposed to, well , you get the picture.

I'm not slamming Basics, I am one currently. But really, Basic is more of a tech, don't you think?

Agreed. I'm EMTB, too, but really this is technician stuff...knowledge and theory isn't very in-depth. While an EMTB should be able to look at the big picture of stuff, it's for the most part just following algorythms. If this presents, then do this. If that presents, then do this other thing.

[craig]

seems taht the idea of being a 'TECHINCIAN' or an 'ENGINEER' in what ever field has come from America.

seems that you cant be a motor mechanic anymore, you have to be an 'auto service tecnician'

a house wife is now a 'domestic engineer'

so the term EMT has no relevance to us here in Australia

We are Ambulance Officers

We may be Primary Care Officers

We may be Advanced Life Suport Officers

We may be Paramedic Officer

we may be a direvitive of any of the above.....

but we are AMBULANCE OFFICERS first and foremost.

It does help that the EMS (another term not readily used here) system is run entirely different here than in the US. As it is NOT part of the Fire service and is run as a stand alone department in each state.

stay safe