A first aid instructor's conflict with bureaucracy...

[MedicDude]

Hey all,

If you didn't already know, I'm a PCP student in Ontario, and I've just finished my first year of studies (successfully, I might add!). Since I've had my first aid instructor cert since last year, I'm taking time this summer to teach first aid courses. This is a great way for me to stay sharp on my skills, and also make some money doing it. I love what I do-- It's great to be able to meet all sorts of people and share knowledge, and hopefully give everyday people the skills they need to save a life. That being said, I need some advice...

I work in two cities, for two offices of the same organization. (I can't really say where or which though...) City A is where I started working last year, and has management who is fairly ignorant about how first aid courses actually work. City B is where I have started working recently to get more hours, and their management is knowledgeable and pragmatic. City A's management has gotten angry with me, because I'm not taking the full 8-9 hours per day to teach courses. City B's attitude is: "hey as long as you're teaching the material well, and to standards, then no problem!".

So, my problem is with city A's management... Boss calls me in after finishing up a class, demanding to know why I'm done early. I say "well, because I've become more efficient with experience". Response was "well, the standards say you have to have at least 16 hours of teaching time... As I calculate, you only had 14 hours of teaching time..."

I say, "yes, but much of that is repetition and in my experience, unnecessary. If students understand concepts and are performing well in practical situations, why keep them there and bore them to death?"

Boss' response: "but we're required to give them a certain amount of teaching time-- that's the requirement. If you were done 10 minutes early that might be ok, but you're an hour early each day..."

Argh!

I'm kind of stuck here... See, I learned my teaching skills from an instructor with 14 years experience, who is also a Vol. FF and former ambulance officer. His attitude is that lay rescuers just need to learn the basics, and the basic principles behind what they're doing. Any more information, and they'll get confused and bored. He also pointed out to me that it's no use to keep people there all day if we're just going over the same stuff again and again. He says that's why many people hate taking first aid courses, and I totally agree with him. Yes, people have different learning styles, and for those who have difficulty, I give extra help. But really, is it fair to keep everyone for hours and hours just to make sure that every little bit of information is covered?

What makes me angriest is the fact that I get nothing but great feedback from everybody in my courses, but yet I still get chewed out.

People keep coming up to me and saying "jeez, I usually hate first aid courses but I loved yours!". That's one of the best compliments I can get... I can't count the number of students who have said "I learned so much! Thank you!".

Anyone experienced anything similar? Any tips or words of wisdom I could use? Aside from "sucks to be you", hehe

[RaceMedic]

MedicDude ,

Your not alone in this. I am a CPR instructor and hear the samething. Your classes are too short there is no way your classes are complete or cover everything. is what i would hear from my supervisor. The way i got around this is i finally got smart and handed out course evaluations on my own. Outlined them and printed them. then handed them out to my classes. then i would seal them in an envelope and hand them to the supervisor with the rest of the nessesary paper work. after a couple of times of this as well as the people i was instructing stopping them and telling them how i did and how much they enjoyed the class that they let me do what i felt nessesary in my own classes.

Now i will tell you that i have been teaching CPR for over 6yrs and did have to put in my time teaching the "right" way before i ventured out on my own with it. i didn't start modifing my approach until after about two yrs into my teaching. i formed my own ways and means of teaching.

Just stick with it .. you'll get them to come around...

Be Safe

Race

[MedicDude]

MedicDude ,

Your not alone in this. I am a CPR instructor and hear the samething. Your classes are too short there is no way your classes are complete or cover everything. is what i would hear from my supervisor. The way i got around this is i finally got smart and handed out course evaluations on my own. Outlined them and printed them. then handed them out to my classes. then i would seal them in an envelope and hand them to the supervisor with the rest of the nessesary paper work. after a couple of times of this as well as the people i was instructing stopping them and telling them how i did and how much they enjoyed the class that they let me do what i felt nessesary in my own classes.

Now i will tell you that i have been teaching CPR for over 6yrs and did have to put in my time teaching the "right" way before i ventured out on my own with it. i didn't start modifing my approach until after about two yrs into my teaching. i formed my own ways and means of teaching.

Just stick with it .. you'll get them to come around...

Be Safe

Race

Hmm, interesting idea... That's actually the same way the course evaluations were done for my professors in university. We have course evaluations for the courses I teach, but they're very short and not confidential at all. As for teaching "by the book", I did that for the first year I taught... After that, I started to modify my approach slightly, to keep peoples' attention and be more effective as a teacher.

But yeah, I just wish there were some way I could convince management... Your sealed envelope idea sounds good though; I wonder if it might be useful to have a student sign and deliver those evaluations directly to the manager. Of course, many of the classes I teach are on weekends, so that's no good... :? hmm...

[RaceMedic]

It is possible to do it yourself ... most classes i taught were at night. I did it anyway but you have to make sure that you have a eval for each student for it to be taken seriously. it will take many many times of doing it but i think you will find that it is worht your time if you wish to persue teaching further than first aid courses. Good luck in what ever you choose. just don't let them get to you. Keep it up.

Be Safe

Race

[MedicDude]

Thanks, Race... 8)

The whole situation is just a bit frustrating, ya know? When you think you're doing a good job, then someone comes along and slaps you in the face...

Ah well, life goes on

[RaceMedic]

Yea i know all too well... And yes it does no matter what we do to prevent it.

Be Safe

Race

[Dustdevil]

I completely disagree with the both of you.

In my extensive experience teaching both full-time and part-time for the Red Cross, I see that the majority of those who take FA and CPR courses are there ONLY because they are required to be for employment or certification. If they could get the card without taking the course, most would be happy to do it with absolutely no second thoughts about it. They just don't care. What that means to you is this; the single most important factor to them is time. They want out early, regardless of course content or how much they learn. Consequently, the best way to make them happy and get good ratings from your students is to get them out early.

Does this sound familiar? It should. It is exactly what we see with most EMT and Paramedic students too. They want the shortest school they can possibly get, and the faster it ends, the happier they are, regardless of content. So, you should be able to relate. Now... what do most of us -- Race included -- think of this approach in EMS? We think it sucks and is unconscionable. It should be in FA training too.

I have experienced the opposite problem in my FA classes. Admin and some students constantly whine that the class goes fifteen to thirty minutes overtime. It's not really the FA portion that holds the class up. It's the CPR portion that holds it up. Studies show that even when CPR is done 100 percent perfectly, it results in only a very small fraction of the circulation necessary to sustain life. How many FA students REALLY perform 100 percent perfect? How many know exactly what to do when the victim aspirates? How many are even told that the patient WILL aspirate? How many actually find the proper hand position correctly? How many know how to proceed when an airway obstruction develops during (not before) CPR? I find it extremely rare that lay instructors teaching FA/CPR to lay persons demand any significant level of perfection in student performance. Mostly because the instructor has never even done CPR on an actual patient and has no clue how a real patient responds. As a PCP student, you are probably in that same boat. But guys like Race and myself can't use that excuse.

I don't care that my students' main priority is to get a card and go home. MY main priority is to prepare them to render competent lifesaving aid to my fellow human beings. As an experienced EMS provider, you simply cannot do that in the minimum allotted time in most cases. As an inexperienced, lay instructor, you can.

MedicDude, you don't know any better yet because you have no experience. Consequently, you are limited to only that you learned from the lay instructor who taught you. But once you have some real experience and street time, things change. You will realise how inadequate the information you were giving was and hopefully you will adjust to make your instruction more relevant, even if it takes a little longer. But honestly, you probably won't continue teaching once you start working.

[cynic]

Dustdevil, with all due respect, I have taken a CPR class from RaceMedic. I found him to be very thorough and very conscientious of what he was teaching and how. Before you cast an opinion on his teaching style, may I suggest you audit his class? Do not make assumptions based on what you haven't seen (Race's teaching).

Many times, people have requested him to teach the classes because he is refreshing and thorough...not because he lets them out early. He makes sure that a person is performing the technique properly, and he doesn't accept anything half a**ed. If he sees anyone doing this half a**ed, he will stop them right there and model the proper way, and then have them try again. That is what makes a great instructor. The ability to tell someone what they are doing wrong and then telling them how to fix the problem.

Again, I respect your opinion, but it is just that. An opinion.

Cynic

[jmac]

I have to agree with cynic , race and medicdude, as an instructor with a lot of years experience i have found that the nice to knows and the need to knows are very easy to get across and putting the need to knows into practice where they will be used in real life or death situations is of the utmost importance.

First aid is exactly that First aid and what i try to get across to a class is the need to actually do something so practical skills are pushed and the theory side of it is the "nice to know" things, we are not trying to make mini EMT's, sitting in a lecture listening listening to the components of a body system is not going to hold a class of lay rescuers for long but getting them to to actually feel the pulse of a pressure point themselves will, or changing positions constantly in two rescuer CPR with a vomiting Pt....practical scenarios, things they may come up against...no point in flogging a dead horse with lectures, get them working together.

At the end of the day it is the instructor that has responsibility for his students and the examiner, if he is satisfied will card them, if the content of the course can be put across in less then recommended time, so be it, is it not better to have an interested first aider doing something when you arrive on scene because he did loads of practical exercises on his course and it held his concentration rather then some other one that is trying to remember part of some boring lecture,

my two cents worth anyway.

[whit72]

dust wrote:

In my extensive experience teaching both full-time and part-time for the Red Cross

They allow you to teach with those opinions. Of course students are going to shut you out, and wait anxiously for the end of class, Let me guess you list your qualifications on the board behind you so everyone knows who the boss is. Not really hard to figure out why you cant keep their attention.

Whats going on with you, your posts used to be informative and helpful, providing people with a direction all the while echoing professionalism. I can say now your posts no longer reflect that. Its a shame you were an asset to this board.