Common Nomenclature

[Medico]

I agree with this proposal. This is a step forward the industry needs.

Moderator's Edit: https://www.nemsma.org/images/pdfs/Position-Paper-Paramedicine-Nomemclature-Final.pdf
(added link to the above position)

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[Summit]

Rename EMTs and AEMTs to Paramedics?
Don't call it Prehospital Medicine or EMS... call it Paramedicine?

Meh... that is not where I'd put much effort if I cared about the field.

I think this makes sense in places like Canada where the entry level, Primary Care Paramedic, has as much or more education than a US medic, then they have Advanced Care Paramedic or Critical Care Paramedic... higher levels with more years of university.

Canada still has an Emergency Medical Responder which is more equivalent to a US EMT.

This will proposal will accomplish nothing for the field but to obfuscate the differences in anemic education. Only higher education standards can accomplish the advancement we seek!

 

[Medico]

I disagree, this will accomplish a lot for the profession.

I will paraphrase a friend of mine.

EMS used to only respond to emergencies, providing a narrow service; now we are community paramedics, perform inter-facility transports, work within hospitals, in addition to responding to 911 calls. We are professionals and each of the tasks we perform falls under the umbrella of Paramedicine, therefore we are paramedics. In the countries with the positions as you listed there is delineation within their ranks; however, they are all still paramedics. The public, they don't understand the difference between a First Responder, EMT, AEMT, Intermediate, Paramedic, CCEMTP, and they don't need to. It's too convoluted and difficult to explain to them. To advance the profession sometimes simple measures can be taken and that can be unifying the profession under one umbrella. The public will better understand what it is we all do and we will move forward. We will still be able to deliniate within the field.

I do agree that EMT should be a 2 year degree and Paramedic a 4 year. We want autonomy and respect in healthcare we need to make drastic changes from within.


Please excuse any horrid grammar or punctuation mistakes. I typed this from my phone.

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[akflightmedic]

Switching to this name change is also one step closer to a national standard....change is slow, yet possible.

The absurdity where one state has two levels and then another has five! It is a convoluted mess and in order to progress across the board, there must be standardization across the board. It will be much easier to argue other needed advancements when "every" concerned constituent in TN has the same knowledge of the concerned in Alaska...or Florida...or Maine.

Title reorganization may come prior to educational advancement...this could potentially be a good thing.

 

[DrParasite]

Rename EMTs and AEMTs to Paramedics?

for how many years was everyone an EMT? even a paramedic was an EMT-P? So we are realigning everyone again, this time as paramedics.

Don't call it Prehospital Medicine or EMS... call it Paramedicine?

I actually like this change. EMS is what we do, but paramedicine is the overall umbrella for all out of hospital care. It's much better than MHS (mobile health services), or whatever the latest buzz word is to describe EMS

Its kind of like changing fro certifications to licenses, is it really going to mean anything, or simply be cosmetic window dressing

 

[Summit]

I hear you, but I say this is putting the cart before the horse... and frankly until education is fixed I think we need a strong delineation between the barely-more-than-First Aid EMT and the Paramedic that has (hopefully) 10x the training. I think that was the reason that EMT-P dropped the EMT and just went with Paramedic with the NSP revision!

 

[DesertMedic66]

I hear you, but I say this is putting the cart before the horse... and frankly until education is fixed I think we need a strong delineation between the barely-more-than-First Aid EMT and the Paramedic that has (hopefully) 10x the training. I think that was the reason that EMT-P dropped the EMT and just went with Paramedic with the NSP revision!

I have to agree with this. Sadly at the EMT level the training is so low (in most places) that they should only be considered technicians.

 

[Summit]

Make AEMT a 2 year degree and call it Primary Care Paramedic.
Make Paramedic an additional year and call it Advanced Care Paramedic.
Have an additional year of specialty that grants EITHER Critical Care Paramedic or Community Care Paramedic

Leave EMT as EMT... but end their use as attending providers on ambulances. EMT can remain the training for wheelchair van attendants, ambulance drivers, Firefighters, industrial/mine emergency teams, ski patrol, SAR, etc.

 

[EpiEMS]

Make AEMT a 2 year degree and call it Primary Care Paramedic.
Make Paramedic an additional year and call it Advanced Care Paramedic.
Have an additional year of specialty that grants EITHER Critical Care Paramedic or Community Care Paramedic

Leave EMT as EMT... but end their use as attending providers on ambulances. EMT can remain the training for wheelchair van attendants, ambulance drivers, Firefighters, industrial/mine emergency teams, ski patrol, SAR, etc.

I would say AEMT a 2 year, paramedic a 4 year, but either way, this would be huge progress.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Yeah, all that education sounds good… But that's not what anybody's talking about here. The national EMS management association ( A group which has no real cache, by the way) is suggesting that all EMS providers become known as paramedic, with no change in any educational requirements.

And that is a problem.

Are all nurses equal? No ... we have LPNs, RNs, BSN, CRNA's, nurse practitioners… All different levels. Sure, they're all a "nurse" but we don't specifically refer to them as nurses, we reference them by their specific title, which is reflective of their training level.

The argument has been made that certification levels are two "inside" and the paramedic term will be used as a public branding tool. I have enough trouble now with other healthcare professionals not knowing what I do. When everyone is referred to as a paramedic it will increase confusion about an individual providers education and skill set. I don't care what the public calls me. I care about skill set recognition in the healthcare setting.

It's not an ego thing, it's a reality thing.

 

[DrParasite]

Do we call all nurses and nurse? No we have LPNs, RNs, BSN, CRNA's, nurse practitioners… All different levels. Sure they're all a nurse but we don't specifically refer to them as nurses, we reference them by their specific title, which is reflective of their training level.

Most LPNs, RN,s and BSNs are all called nurses, depending on where you work (SNF call their LPNs nurses, hospitals call their BSNs nurses, and RNs or ADNs are nurses even though they don't have bachelors degrees.)

I agree with you that the masters level nurses are usually not called nurses, but they also do a much different job than a "regular" nurse.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Most LPNs, RN,s and BSNs are all called nurses, depending on where you work (SNF call their LPNs nurses, hospitals call their BSNs nurses, and RNs or ADNs are nurses even though they don't have bachelors degrees.)

I agree with you that the masters level nurses are usually not called nurses, but they also do a much different job than a "regular" nurse.

But can an LVN and a BSN hold the same job? Not at my hospital.

And the flight paramedic or a 911 ground paramedic is a very different job then an EMT who does basic IFT work.

Not everyone is a paramedic.
Not everyone is a doctor.
Not everyone is an imaging technologist

We're all health care providers. But let's use names that are descriptive of our jobs, skills and eventually, our education.

 

[Jim37F]

I will say that as widespread and common the term is, when I tell people I am an EMT I still have to explain what that is often enough, but as soon as I mention "Paramedic" (note, I don't tell people I'm a Paramedic, more that as a Basic I work alongside and assist them) everyone pretty much automatically knows exactly what I mean.

I suppose if you really wanted to make it so that with my paltry 120hrs I can officially call myself a Paramedic, I'd be more comfortable with something like "Paramedic-Basic" (current medics could be "Paramedic-Advanced", a la BLS and ALS) or if we wanted to borrow a page from the Canadians book, "Basic Care Paramedic" and "Advanced Care Paramedic" would be an easier, more intuitive name change than going to Primary Care or Advanced Care Paramedics given our current delineation of provider levels along Basic and Advanced Life Support.

All in all, I think the current naming structure is OK, and is such a minor fish when there's bigger ones in the pond to catch and fry, I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I wouldn't spend any money or volunteer effort to enact it either.

 

[Medico]

But can an LVN and a BSN hold the same job? Not at my hospital.

And the flight paramedic or a 911 ground paramedic is a very different job then an EMT who does basic IFT work.

Not everyone is a paramedic.
Not everyone is a doctor.
Not everyone is an imaging technologist

We're all health care providers. But let's use names that are descriptive of our jobs, skills and eventually, our education.

You will still have EMT's. The position will not be going away with this proposal. There will be that delineation. But, for the sake of Joe Blow not knowing what it is we do or who we are and to better realign the profession with what we do, we are no longer EMS but Paramedicine.

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[NomadicMedic]

You're incorrect. Under this proposal, ALL prehospital providers would be known as paramedics. That includes everyone from 120 hour EMTs to Critical Care Flight medics.

You will still have EMT's. The position will not be going away with this proposal. There will be that delineation. But, for the sake of Joe Blow not knowing what it is we do or who we are and to better realign the profession with what we do, we are no longer EMS but Paramedicine.

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[EpiEMS]

Are all nurses equal? No ... we have LPNs, RNs, BSN, CRNA's, nurse practitioners… All different levels. Sure, they're all a "nurse" but we don't specifically refer to them as nurses, we reference them by their specific title, which is reflective of their training level.

But can an LVN and a BSN hold the same job? Not at my hospital.

They all practice nursing, and they're all (self-)regulated by the state board of nursing (as far as I know). So, collectively, they are nurses. What's wrong with saying (current) EMTs, AEMTs, and Paramedics collectively are practicing paramedicine, and then renaming them (in a tiered fashion) to primary care paramedic, intermediate care paramedic, and advanced care paramedic, say? The public asks for an ambulance - they don't care if the people who show up are called ambulance attendants, EMTs, or paramedics. We could easily just call ourselves what reflects our practice, and - like nursing - have a tiered system of titles (I mean, we already do, right?).

 

[E tank]

I've always felt uncomfortable with the term "paramedicine". It implies that it is a separate body of knowledge than regular old "medicine". Kind of along the lines of homeopathic medicine v. medicine v. chiropractic etc.

Pre-hospital emergency medical care is delegated medicine, not it's own unique discipline.

 

[EpiEMS]

I've always felt uncomfortable with the term "paramedicine". It implies that it is a separate body of knowledge than regular old "medicine". Kind of along the lines of homeopathic medicine v. medicine v. chiropractic etc.

Pre-hospital emergency medical care is delegated medicine, not it's own unique discipline.

That's fair enough, much as in a perfect world we'd be self-regulating. On the other hand, so much of advanced practice nursing is indistinguishable from medicine, right? So why do we call it nursing? I would assume that the reason is primarily turf protection, no?

So, for now, where EMS isn't necessarily self-regulating, we can always call it "medicine" and the practitioners "paramedics" - that doesn't seem disingenuous, no?

 

[Medico]

You're incorrect. Under this proposal, ALL prehospital providers would be known as paramedics. That includes everyone from 120 hour EMTs to Critical Care Flight medics.


View attachment 3814

Correct, the common term will be Paramedic; but, we will still have EMT's. This only speaks of how we will reference ourselves.

For example, my system calls all providers 'medics.' All physicians are physicians, although they have different specialities and skills (ie. Cardiologist, neurologist, trauma surgeon). Alas, delineation only matters to us.

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[Summit]

Most LPNs, RN,s and BSNs are all called nurses, depending on where you work (SNF call their LPNs nurses, hospitals call their BSNs nurses, and RNs or ADNs are nurses even though they don't have bachelors degrees.)

Yes an LPN and RN might both be grouped as nurses... and let's ignore for a moment that LPNs are disappearing.

Apples to apples.
An EMT is more like a CNA. CNAs are not grouped as Nurses.
A LPN has as much schooling as most paramedics, AEMT not even close.

Therefor, I still say up the education for AEMT and Paramedic, then group them together. Calling an EMT a Paramedic-Basic flies squarely in the face of the well considered effort to relabel EMT-P to Paramedic in order to set it apart from the much less trained EMT/AEMT (while at the same time the overskilled-undertrained-mother-may-I EMT-I99 went away).

This proposal drags the "brand" of Paramedic backwards to elevate the EMT/AEMT.
If an EMT is a Paramedic-Basic, can I call a WFR a Paramedic-WFR?
First Aid class gets me Paramedic-Slightly-More-Basic?