# "My instructor was the best."



## Veneficus (Apr 14, 2011)

As our time and discussions go by, we often talk about what makes good and bad instructors. 

I think it was ridryder who once pointed out here that most people only ever meet the instructors they had in school. By extension, it seems they have absoltely nothing to compare it to.

Now on occasion I have let people know from their discriptions here that their instructors may be lacking. 

But I figured I would open a discussion on it.

How good/bad were your EMS instructors?

How did you reach that conclusion?

Did you inquire about their background and credentials prior to the start of class?

Is it based on whether or not you liked them?

Tell us about your experience. Be descriptive.


----------



## DesertMedic66 (Apr 14, 2011)

My EMT instructor was really good. we started with 45 students and only 14 graduated tho. but he was dedicated to teaching us. he gave us his phone number and his address. if we were having trouble understanding us we could call him or go to his house or to his work and he would be more then willing to help us day or night. he would come and help us at our study groups and go out to dinner with us. the way i learn is by being taught by someone who is still working in the EMS field. on graduation he told us if we drink and think about driving home then call him and he will come get us. he related everything to calls he has gone on in the past of calls he did yesterday. even tho i am out of EMT class we still talk and hang out. that is what makes him a good instructor and thats what sets him apart from other instructors i have seen. most instructors are there for you just the day you are in school not every single day of the week. he helped another student move houses. being a good instructor is more then just teaching.


----------



## medicRob (Apr 14, 2011)

My EMT-IV instructor was fantastic. She had over 20 years experience in EMS, she was still actively working in the field, held a bachelors of nursing, and worked as Supervisor, FTO, Service Director, and Clinical Coordinator throughout those years. She was also a committee member with one of the TN EMS Education Associations, and is now a regional director for the state. 

My Paramedic instructor was initially licensed in 1979 or somewhere around that time. He is a member of the TN Board of EMS, plays an active role in curriculum development for paramedic programs, and he held every position you can imagine a Paramedic having. He also had a Masters of Organizational Leadership. 

I was pleased with both of these instructors because they didn't spoon feed the content. We have all seen instructors who would baby students and at the last minute decide to give someone a "B" instead of a "C" because they were a few points away. These instructors weren't like that. You had to work hard.. If you got a 90, that's because you earned a 90, not because you made an 88 and he/she rounded up. If you could not cut it, you were dropped from the program, simple as that. They were tough, and we pretty much hated them throughout the duration of our programs, but one thing is for sure.. We respected them, and looking back, we were thankful to have had them because they made us what we are.


----------



## mycrofft (Apr 14, 2011)

*Mixed bag.*

EMT-A (tech college 1977), two good instructors whose teaching styles and experiences were complementary (one was captain of a small vollie dept, and one was younger hotshot in charge of the MICU project at a local teaching hospital).
Nursing college: can't even remember an emergency instructor _per se _(as a nursing and medical colege, we got anatomy, physiology, pharmacodynamics, etc as separate courses) we did a ten week clinical (two nights a week) minus some nights for some reason, during which some (a few) students did a lot, and some like me did almost nothing. It used to be a twenty week course, but since the OR refused to take us for a full semester anymore, we had to cram both ER and OR into one semester. My ER ambulance ridealong was a joke since I'd already worked ambulance for three years, as I was starting to leave early for the night on their say-so they started watching stag movies.
ACLS: at Phoenix University in 1986, Dr McSwain stuck his head in and gave us a one-day on the field as a whole, other instrutors were rushed and gabve us about "C"-level attention.
CMRT (Combat Medical Readiness Training) at Alpena, had basic stuff we should have been taught like map and compass, (GPS was just being rolled out), LOAC, sidearms use and maintenance (9mm M9), plus a cursory introduction to combat injuries and barebones treatment. Instructors: not educated enough, but good instructors. (Yes, you can be both, but you're going down swinging).
Volk Field Cadre trainers: more combat stuff like UXO and transport under fire, again these were not highly educated individuals but they were enthusiastic and we covered a lot of ground fast.

As a whole, generally ok at lowest levels, but not enough at higher levels. I think our MD's and most Army/Marine trainees had better than we had in USAF/Air Nat Guard.


----------



## ffemt8978 (Apr 14, 2011)

My EMT-B instructor absolutely sucked.  When only 3 students out of a class of 32 pass the NREMT-B the first time, and only 2 more pass on a retest; I'd have to say that is a pretty clear case of instructor failure.

For instance, during the night we were supposed to learn about airway management, he spent about 3/4 of the night talking about how his fellow officers and him (he was also a LEO), would "sodomize squad cars with inflatable penises".  He also said he would pass any female in the class who could take a combitube without gagging.

Needless to say, he's no longer an instructor...and I'm proud to say I had no small part in having his credentials yanked.

My EMT-I instructor was a very knowledgeable street paramedic with the focus of educating students to think about what they're doing and why instead of being a cookbook provider.  During our clinicals, she actually wanted us to come back with a patient contact about NOT starting an IV and have a valid reason for it.  She absolutely could not stand the "if you're in my rig, you're getting an IV" philosophy so many students seem to have.


----------



## rwik123 (Apr 14, 2011)

Mine also wasn't that great. He was older and hadn't been in the field for a long time. He also used the fear method... If you did something wrong, he'd yell at you.


----------



## usalsfyre (Apr 14, 2011)

My basic instructor was alright. He followed the curriculum and passed along the info needed to fulfill the class requirements. Sort of a journeyman performance.

My paramedic instructor was fan-freaking-tastic! Prior to taking the assistant dean over the EMS job she had been an assistant instructor at our local med school helping teach gross anatomy. She had a Masters in physiology, a 20 year background in EMS and a true passion for teaching. Were her classes hard? Damn right they were hard, we lost about 50% of our class. However as I come in contact with more and more EMS educational programs I realize how fortunate I am to have the background I do. If you finished her program you didn't just know protocol monkey stuff, you had at least a tenuous grasp of what was going on at the cellular level.


----------



## EMS49393 (Apr 15, 2011)

My EMT instructor was a crusty old paramedic/LPN that was so hung up on his war stories that he forgot to teach anything.  His style was dry, he had no sense of humor, and he had a call to relate to anything you can imagine.  The occasional "I once saw this" story is one thing, but a constant barrage of how awesome you are and how much stuff you have seen and done is overkill. 

My IV tech instructor was witty, helpful, engaging, and an all around nice guy.  He is very popular and is an instructor at a major university in my home state.  

My paramedic instructor was Bob Page.  That class was a big awesome cake with awesome frosting and sprinkles.   Although I'm now an experienced paramedic, I do have a brand new job in my home state, some 1200 miles from Bob's class.  I was sitting around talking to one of the supervisors during my orientation shift and my preceptor told her who taught my class.  She called me a Goddess and asked me to teach her something.  He is extremely popular in my area.  Aside from that, his class was great and his standards tough.  I felt that he didn't prepare us for the NR exam, he prepared us to be critical thinkers and he armed us with the tools necessary truly assess our patients, formulate a treatment plan, and to not only understand what we were doing but to be able to explain the reasoning behind our actions.  He is the kind of teacher I want to become.


----------



## MrBrown (Apr 15, 2011)

Browns Clinical Education Tutors were fantastic, Clinical Education here are all volunteers i.e. they are full time Ambulance Officers (usually with at least 5 years experience) who volunteer to be seconded to Clinical Education and maintain 20% road time.  The same goes for our Clinical Standards Officers.

The majority of our Clinical Education Tutors have some form of adult teaching qualification as well as being an Intensive Care Paramedic.  Because they volunteer to go off road and do education they actually want to do it and really go the extra mile to help.

Clinical Education teach the Diploma to our volunteers (EMTs) and also the CCE modules, the Paramedic and Intensive Care Paramedic qualifications are taught by University.  

University Paramedic faculty who teach the Degree and Post Graduate Diploma generally all have a Masters Degree.  Some of the lecturers are Intensive Care Paramedic with the Degree who are working on their Masters or tertiary education qualifications.


----------



## Zodiac (Apr 15, 2011)

My EMT instructors were.....okay (one was a much better than the other). They taught the class separately on different nights which caused a lot of confusion for the students because each instructor had a completely different view on how things should be done and sometimes those views contradicted each other. One was great at answering questions, the other usually responded with something along the lines of "because it is" or "I'm not sure." I also think they were pretty careless when grading quizzes and tests; counting off for correct answers and looking over incorrect ones.


----------



## mgr22 (Apr 15, 2011)

I'm inclined to recall the many good instructors I've had. The trait they shared is that I remember exactly what they said and/or did to teach me certain specific things. I still "hear" them sometimes when I'm assessing or treating patients. Although I liked most of them, that certainly wasn't a prerequisite; some of the lessons were unpleasant and complicated by my inability to see the big picture.

I might have asked informally about some of them beforehand, but I don't remember ever formally checking their credentials.

Specifics? There are so many. A lot of worthwhile sessions involved very strident, almost adversarial feedback that I don't think I could duplicate now, 20 years later, without students complaining to administrators. I think there's less tolerance today in the academic world for instructors who aren't politically correct. Same with bosses, but that's another topic.


----------



## Aidey (Apr 15, 2011)

My EMT B instructor was great. My class with him started with him trying  to kick me out for being under 18, and ended with him giving me the  best letter of recommendation I have ever received. I can't specifically  remember anything he taught me, but he was good. He was very  no-nonsense, and wouldn't BS people. When we covered scene safety he  actually brought up the problems with the scene on 9/11 (this was 2003).  

My paramedic academy was hit or miss. We had 3 main instructors, with  varying levels of experience. I don't remember there being anything  horrendous or especially fantastic about them. The biggest problem I had  was they used a screwy grading system, where 100-94% was an A, 93-87% a  B, 86-80% a C. We had to have an 80% average or higher, which wasn't a  problem. But it screwed with everyone's GPA and then they changed it to a  normal system the class after mine.


----------



## rescue99 (Apr 15, 2011)

ffemt8978 said:


> My EMT-B instructor absolutely sucked.  When only 3 students out of a class of 32 pass the NREMT-B the first time, and only 2 more pass on a retest; I'd have to say that is a pretty clear case of instructor failure.
> 
> For instance, during the night we were supposed to learn about airway management, he spent about 3/4 of the night talking about how his fellow officers and him (he was also a LEO), would "sodomize squad cars with inflatable penises".  He also said he would pass any female in the class who could take a combitube without gagging.
> 
> ...



Ok, he ( the LEO) sucks. But, passing NR the first time is not a measure of any self respecting instructor. NR really needs to stop making the one-swipe deal so important. Many people need 2 to pass for a whole host of reasons.

The goal of a program is to facilitate, to educate and to mentor a new set of skills and to help students critically apply new knowledge....which your LEO instructor seemed to have some difficulty in doing. Ya landed a good one the second time though


----------



## rescue99 (Apr 15, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Browns Clinical Education Tutors were fantastic, Clinical Education here are all volunteers i.e. they are full time Ambulance Officers (usually with at least 5 years experience) who volunteer to be seconded to Clinical Education and maintain 20% road time.  The same goes for our Clinical Standards Officers.
> 
> The majority of our Clinical Education Tutors have some form of adult teaching qualification as well as being an Intensive Care Paramedic.  Because they volunteer to go off road and do education they actually want to do it and really go the extra mile to help.
> 
> ...



Brown didn't really say how his actual education was though????? All Brown did was tell us what their pedigree papers read. Note how Brown says good things of ONLY the Medics?? Perhaps a goal more worthy of reaching someday, eh Mr. Brown


----------



## MrBrown (Apr 15, 2011)

rescue99 said:


> Note how Brown says good things of ONLY the Medics?? Perhaps a goal more worthy of reaching someday, eh Mr. Brown



Brown will one day become an Intensive Care Paramedic


----------



## rescue99 (Apr 15, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Brown will one day become an Intensive Care Paramedic



Mr. Brown is a wise man, beyond his years :beerchug:


----------



## thegreypilgrim (Apr 15, 2011)

I basically had the same people for both my EMT and Paramedic education. The program director for both was certainly a "dinosaur" medic to say the least - licensed back in the 70s at some point. Eventually became an RN and worked as a flight medic/nurse for about 10 years or so before going into full-time teaching, and got an MEd degree.

Most of the other faculty for our program came from EMS/Nursing backgrounds and typically all had masters degrees - there was also a PA but he hasn't been all that active for several years and mostly functions as an administrator as I understand.

For the most part, they were all quite good. One of them, however, just needed to spare us our suffering and just retire already. She had a great, dry sense of humor but my God her level of burnout was just palpable - I got absolutely nothing out of her lectures. The program itself was immensely challenging, and we lost over 40% of our class. We covered things to an extraordinary depth and comprehensive understanding of the material was expected of us at every step of the program. Literally every quiz and exam we had was comprehensive and had material on it from many weeks prior.

At university, the faculty for my EMS degree has been excellent. Most of them are former medics who have gone on to obtain advanced degrees (primarily master's level, but several have PhD's) and some are still on the road. Totally different methodological approach as compared to my primary paramedic training program, however. Far more accommodating and work very hard to create a learning environment that is not "hostile" to student questioning. Being at a university with a medical school has had its advantages as well, as we've had a number of MD's come and guest lecture for us.


----------



## MrBrown (Apr 15, 2011)

Brown thinks this Pilgrim fellow has been into the shermstick again, such quality sounding programs cannot exist within the state of California, it is contravened by the fact such existence would undo the very fabric of the space time continuum 

For the purposes of this post, Loma Linda University is not recognised as part of the state of California 

Yes, Brown is taking the piss ...


----------



## thegreypilgrim (Apr 15, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Brown thinks this Pilgrim fellow has been into the shermstick again,


Can't be as bad as Vegemite. 



> such quality sounding programs cannot exist within the state of California, it is contravened by the fact such existence would undo the very fabric of the space time continuum


 It's an anomaly, to be sure. California, as odd as it may sound, actually does have some decent paramedic schools. The problem is no one goes to them, and of those that do the school's efforts are lost due to the students being swept away into the local FD's highly anti-intellectual culture. So, whatever passion the student may have developed for paramedicine as a result of the program's influence is certainly decimated by the culture of the organization they become employed at. 

Also, as good as my primary paramedic program was there are/were several things I would have changed about it. It was far too short for the the amount and depth of material we covered which resulted in a handful of things being somewhat "dumbed down" that I later discovered weren't quite correct. And the learning environment was not exactly "open" at all. 



> For the purposes of this post, Loma Linda University is not recognised as part of the state of California


 I'm perfectly willing to concede this...actually it would make sense given the utterly awful wasteland of the municipality immediately surrounding our Holy City on the Hill.


----------



## MrBrown (Apr 15, 2011)

thegreypilgrim said:


> Can't be as bad as Vegemite.



Oh god vegemite is awful black muck, now Marmite FTW


----------



## thegreypilgrim (Apr 15, 2011)

MrBrown said:


> Oh god vegemite is awful black muck, now Marmite FTW


I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I visit Australia (and yes I know you're from NZ and conflating the two is BLASPHEMY) this coming December.

Is LLU known all that well in your part of the world?


----------



## jmc519 (Apr 21, 2011)

My instructors were some of the best. We had our main instructor, who has been in EMS for over 20 years, and still going. Right at the beginning, they all came in and explained who they were, where they had worked, where they currently work, gave phone numbers (including the administrators) so that if ever anyone had any questions, we'd be able to get ahold of someone who could answer them (sometimes you just can't answer a phone when you're in the back of an ambulance). Our second instructor was also really cool, though we didn't get to see him as much. They shared from personal experience, as well as the book, and made classtime fun, even the lectures. Employees of the Ambulance Service which put on the class came down to help us out when the radio was quiet, and proctored our practice runs for practicals.

It helps to have an instructor that jokes around with you, gets to know you on a personal level, so that they almost feel more like a peer than a superior. Our class was small, we started with 11, and only ended up with 6, but not for lack of the instructor's enthusiasm and skill. 

Fortunately for me, I get to start working soon with one of the agencies my head instructor works for. I was promised a contingency slot to start out with while still in the class, and as soon as my paperwork comes in from the state (maybe today... I need to go check the mail), I'll be picking up shifts as a third rider, to get real time training. 

Couldn't be happier with my educational experience.


----------



## Seaglass (Apr 21, 2011)

I had three for my EMT class: 

Instructor #1 could make any subject dull. He spoke in a monotone, his delivery was listless, and he generally made it clear he was punching the clock. 

Instructor #2 was middle of the road. He was good, but nothing about him was really great. I liked him, though, because he was a really nice guy who was perfectly willing to put up with me if I stayed late to ask questions. 

Instructor #3 was awesome. Really engaged with the class, and was really good at presenting the same material in a new way if someone wasn't getting it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see as much of him as we did the other two, due to some family issues that came up during the class. 

Since finishing, I've also had refresher courses and the like, and helped out with a number of classes in a few systems. The quality of instructors there has also covered a very wide range, from the scary burned-out guy who gets just a little too personal with students, to the 20-year veteran who could teach A&P to a rock and have it understand. I've also noticed no real difference among the ones that are third service and fire-based--a lot of good and bad apples in both.


----------



## EMT Dan (Apr 23, 2011)

I thought my EMT-B instructor was pretty good.  He was still a practicing medic, and he was one of the supervisors and quality control guys in the hospital and ambulance system where he worked at (of a pretty decent size).  

He was always friendly, engaging, and personable.  I thought he did a pretty good job of making things interesting and getting us involved.  He stayed in touch with us via email, and even now - a year out - he'll reach out to us to inform us of CE opportunities going on.

Also (and this isn't the most important thing to many), his success rate for the NREMT was pretty significantly above the average.  While teaching to the NREMT seems to not make you a better clinician (and he definitely went beyond just NREMT), there IS something to be said about actually getting certified...

The one thing I wish he would have done better (and this is probably partly from being several years out of college and in the military) was reigning in a few of the other students.  In the 46-student class of mainly college students, they didn't give much of a :censored::censored::censored::censored: about being late, not understanding the concept of 10 minutes, and consistently complaining about certain requirements, exams, and other things they had no justification to whine about.

But I think I was pretty fortunate to have him as an instructor.


----------



## rmabrey (Apr 23, 2011)

My Main EMT-B instructor was great both in teaching the material, and preparing us for what life in EMS is like. Although it was not hard to pass the class, with all of our homework online and open book, so far the pass rate for NREMT is about 75% for the class first time through(only four have tested). 

Our secondary instructor is an EMT-P, flight medic, and an RN. HE pretty much drilled skills into our heads. We did have one complete failure, but I think it was more the student than him. Everyone else either passed first time through, or only had one station to retest.


----------



## DrParasite (Apr 23, 2011)

Maybe it's just me, but I love war stories.... well, maybe not war stories per se, but experienced instructors, who knew the material, and could apply it to situations they have experienced personally on their career.

One of the worst instructors I ever had was in anatomy and physiology... She was an MD, who graduated medical school, but never actually practiced as a doctor, so she had no residency or internship.... not only that, but some of the stuff she told us (insulin raises the blood glucose level in the body) was wrong.  Plus she was dull, and had no real world experience to back up what she said.

Most of the better EMT instructors I had were either seasoned EMTs or seasoned paramedics.  a couple doctors/nurses who were specialists in the topics they taught, but doing stuff in a hospital is different than doing it in the field (much fewer tools available in the field).

Teaching someone something, and showing them that it was been useful in the past (with an actual time you used it or needed to know it), has always made me remember something better than just someone lecturing.


----------



## nwhitney (Apr 28, 2011)

My current Basic instructor is great.  He has a great combination of formal education and practical experience.  There are many things about him that make him an excellent instructor but one in particular comes to mind.  He has no problem saying "I don't know" to a question and then often by the next class meeting he has an answer.  One other thing I just thought of.  When one of my classmates did her ED rotation she was working peds and one of the peds pt she was helping to treat passed away, nothing she did or didn't do.  The nurse she was shadowing was a former student of our instructor and called him.  He gave my classmate his personal number, made sure she had a CISD and overall provided an enormous amount of support for her.  He still checks in on her from time to time.


----------



## Chief Complaint (Apr 28, 2011)

My instructors for my *Basic* were good, not great, but good.  Came out of the program well prepared for registry.  The best thing about the course was that we spent a TON of time doing scenarios.  Hours and hours of scenarios.  Complicated scenarios.  

My instructors for my *Intermediate* were all over the place.  A few of them were incredible, a few were terrible.  Example: spending lab sessions rehashing calls that they worked rather than using the time to teach us.  Im there to learn, not stroke your ego.  Hows about letting me get my hands on that needle decompression kit instead of telling me about a call you went on 10 years ago?  

Most were great though, only a couple of bad eggs in there.


----------



## silver (Apr 28, 2011)

My instructor for EMT-B was pretty good, she was a EMT-P/RRT. Good at explaining things, personable, and knowledgable.

When compared to professors I have/had, though it makes me wonder what a masters of doctorally trained educator for my class would have been like. Seems like the curriculum today could be taught by anyone.


----------

