Beginning Employment

[cfaulknor]

Hello. I'm 18 years old and have recently been employed by a local volunteer BLS Department. One of the conditions for employment was that I spend six months running with an experienced EMT. I'm interested to see how other departments handle new membership.

[KE5EHI]

From what I've heard, that's a common thing to spend six months with an experienced employee. Here, we have a 6-week training academy and then have 2-3 weeks of 'orientation rides' where we are put with a training officer and evaluated. After that we are fully cleared. On the flip side, we have such a high call volume, you learn things real fast since during those 2-3 weeks you'll see at least some of every type of call just about.

[Dustdevil]

I would have serious doubts about the professionalism of an organisation that put an arbitrary time frame on their orientation period without defining the actual quality and quantity of your exposure. In KE5EHI's scenario, the quality and quantity of their 3 week orientation is a known quantity because of their scheduling and call volume, as well as the preceptorship being guided by recognised training officers. In the case of most volunteer organisations, you do not get any of those benefits. There is a good chance that the so-called "experienced" EMT's you are running with have very little real world experience themselves. Just a lot of time on the roster. And six months of showing up to weekly meetings and checking out the truck, while probably evaluating fewer emergent patients than the number of meetings you have made, doesn't really amount to "experience" in a realistic sense.

How long somebody has been an EMT is an absolutely worthless statistic in terms of measuring their competency or experience.

I think this department needs to have two very different standards. They need a probationary period as a member, which 6 months is the standard of most volunteer departments I have encountered. But they need a separate standard for new personnel to be released as primary caregivers that needs to specifically address a number of patient contacts, as well as a number of specific kinds of patient contacts. And, of course, the quality of your performance on those contacts should be critiqued by somebody qualified to do so. That means somebody with SIGNIFICANT long term experience and advanced education, not just any other volunteer with 6 months on the roster. That is how professional EMS providers approach this situation. If that is not what your organisation is doing, run. It sucks.

[KE5EHI]

How long somebody has been an EMT is an absolutely worthless statistic in terms of measuring their competency or experience.

Excellent point

[EMT-B 55]

The probation period for the service I work for is a minimum of 30 calls with evaluations after each run. Yes the senior partner has extra paperwork but I have found it to be a good tool

[becksdad]

The service I work with has a 6 month probationary period (which is standard for all county employees). Additionally, we have a 2 week orientation, then a new employee is placed with an FTO (field training officer) for anywhere from 1 month up to 6 months. Even experienced medics are placed with an FTO. If the FTO feels you are ready early, then you go through an oral interview with our medical director (an emergency physician), and a small panel of senior providers. At 3 months, you are expected to be ready, but under certain circumstances, with the recommendation of the FTO, an employee may be extended an additional 3 months. At the end of 6 months, if the medical director is still not comfortable with releasing someone to practice under his license, then that person is terminated (not in a bad way, just unable to meet requirements).

This orientation system is designed to release the best providers we can, and discover areas that need attention. I think it is a very good system. Despite the rigorous training and orientation, we still get a few goofballs through. Like every other EMS organization, ours falls prey to demand exceeding supply of quality providers. Sometimes I think the demand for warm bodies exceeds the desire for quality delivery of pre-hospital medical care. Unfortunate.

[NREMT-Basic]

Sounds like a good, if slightly bumpy, approval program.