# Community Paramedic exam



## NomadicMedic (Mar 21, 2022)

I just took the IBSC Community Paramedic exam and it was exactly as I expected. Lots of lab value questions, lots of patient advocacy questions and lots of ethical/boundary questions. 

If you take any Community Paramedic review course or just buy the textbook, you’ll have no issues.


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## EpiEMS (Mar 21, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> I just took the IBSC Community Paramedic exam and it was exactly as I expected. Lots of lab value questions, lots of patient advocacy questions and lots of ethical/boundary questions.
> 
> If you take any Community Paramedic review course or just buy the textbook, you’ll have no issues.


How much of it do you think is truly ALS in nature? Curious because the patient advocacy doesn't seem like scope is a limitation.


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 21, 2022)

EpiEMS said:


> How much of it do you think is truly ALS in nature? Curious because the patient advocacy doesn't seem like scope is a limitation.



Honestly, none of it is ALS. It’s something else entirely. Maybe a weird mix between social work, nursing and medical assistant. I can see why nurses feel threatened by MIH/CP  It’s squarely in their wheelhouse.


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## HardKnocks (Mar 22, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> Honestly, none of it is ALS. It’s something else entirely. Maybe a weird mix between social work, nursing and medical assistant. I can see why nurses feel threatened by MIH/CP  It’s squarely in their wheelhouse.


Congrats, 

I just hope Departments pass along the additional profits, in a form of Salary increases, that will eventually trickle down from the revenue generated from Community Paramedic Calls.


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## HardKnocks (Mar 22, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> I just took the IBSC Community Paramedic exam and it was exactly as I expected. Lots of lab value questions, lots of patient advocacy questions and lots of ethical/boundary questions.
> 
> If you take any Community Paramedic review course or just buy the textbook, you’ll have no issues.


Congrats


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## EpiEMS (Mar 22, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> Honestly, none of it is ALS. It’s something else entirely. Maybe a weird mix between social work, nursing and medical assistant. I can see why nurses feel threatened by MIH/CP It’s squarely in their wheelhouse.



That sounds consistent with what I’ve read. It’s not visiting nurses but not *not* visiting nursing? I guess I see the big delta between CP and visiting nurses as the ability to manage acute conditions and more seamlessly intervene & provide transport?


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 22, 2022)

EpiEMS said:


> That sounds consistent with what I’ve read. It’s not visiting nurses but not *not* visiting nursing? I guess I see the big delta between CP and visiting nurses as the ability to manage acute conditions and more seamlessly intervene & provide transport?


I’d say that’s a fair assessment, however most of it is monitoring chronic conditions, performing point of care testing and managing telehealth visits. Or at least it is in my area.


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 22, 2022)

HardKnocks said:


> Congrats,
> 
> I just hope Departments pass along the additional profits, in a form of Salary increases, that will eventually trickle down from the revenue generated from Community Paramedic Calls.


Nobody’s getting rich on mobile integrated health, unless you have a strong partnership with an ACO Or MCO.

FWIW,, most community paramedics in my area are being paid somewhere around $40 an hour, which is not bad considering it’s a Monday through Friday 830 to 4 type of job


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## fm_emt (Mar 22, 2022)

which textbook did you use for this?


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 22, 2022)

Product Catalog Index | Public Safety Group
					

Based on nationally recognized and field-tested curricula from across the country, Community Health Paramedicine offers clarity and precision in a concise format that ensures comprehension and encourages critical thinking. : 9781284040968




					www.psglearning.com


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## DrParasite (Mar 23, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> Honestly, none of it is ALS. It’s something else entirely.


but... 


NomadicMedic said:


> Lots of lab value questions


As a former ambulance driver / current hose dragger, I don't remember lab values being covered in EMT class.  I can see how reviewing lab values (and making any educated comments based on said lab values) can be outside the scope of knowledge for your standard EMT.


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## EpiEMS (Mar 23, 2022)

DrParasite said:


> but...
> 
> As a former ambulance driver / current hose dragger, I don't remember lab values being covered in EMT class. I can see how reviewing lab values (and making any educated comments based on said lab values) can be outside the scope of knowledge for your standard EMT.



Totally a fair point. But that’s just one component (and I question if you can’t protocolize that)?


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## Carlos Danger (Mar 25, 2022)

DrParasite said:


> but...
> 
> As a former ambulance driver / current hose dragger, I don't remember lab values being covered in EMT class.  I can see how reviewing lab values (and making any educated comments based on said lab values) can be outside the scope of knowledge for your standard EMT.


When he says "none of it is ALS" I don't think what he means is that the material is EMT level, but that it is something else entirely. 

Community healthcare is essentially a mix of primary care and social work. It has nothing to do with life support - basic or advanced. That's what 911 is for.


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## NomadicMedic (Mar 25, 2022)

Carlos Danger said:


> When he says "none of it is ALS" I don't think what he means is that the material is EMT level, but that it is something else entirely.
> 
> Community healthcare is essentially a mix of primary care and social work. It has nothing to do with life support - basic or advanced. That's what 911 is for.


That is exactly what I meant. With the exception of very few questions that seemed as though they were included in the test bank because the title still has the word “Paramedic“ in it, all of the questions were related to social determinants of health, interpreting lab results, performing point of care testing, and discussions of ethical relationships. Nothing about that is typical ALS.

I’ve had discussions with agency leaders who believe that their 911 staff should be able to perform community paramedicine during their downtime. These people clearly do not understand the differences between 911 response and mobile integrated health. They are about as far apart as can be and still be considered a Paramedic. A complete divergence of skills and practice mindset.


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## Carlos Danger (Mar 25, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> I’ve had discussions with agency leaders who believe that their 911 staff should be able to perform community paramedicine during their downtime. These people clearly do not understand the differences between 911 response and mobile integrated health. They are about as far apart as can be and still be considered a Paramedic. A complete divergence of skills and practice mindset.


Exactly. But when all of your training and years of experience is oriented towards MVC's and AMI's and opioid OD's and you've always just walked away from the chronic stuff because there was no immediate threat to life and you had no tools to help with that, that's the mindset that you'll get. 

When I was going through my BSN program we were required to do an internship with a community health nursing agency. I remember dreading the time, because it had nothing to do at all with my career aspirations, and I assumed it would be super boring.

Turns out, I actually really enjoyed it. To the point that I remember thinking "man, I might actually be able to spend some time doing this". I never did, but I think it is a really cool and uniquely challenging area of of nursing (or paramedicine). I liked how it kind of brought together both my EMS and nursing backgrounds. There was nothing at all "911" about it, but there really wasn't much "real" 911 about MOST of the time that I spent doing "911" anyway. It kind of picked up where everything left off the many hundred of times that I showed up on a 911 call and there actually wasn't any emergency; just a person with chronic health and social issues that needed help that I couldn't even begin to offer. You were out in the community, in people's homes (like EMS), but helping with chronic health and social needs (like nursing), which, let's be honest, is a MUCH bigger need than emergency response and managing immediate threats to life.

It's something we need a lot more of and frankly, I don't see how it integrates into a 911 system, but I have no doubt that people smarter than me can figure  it out, and the sooner they do the better our communities will be for it.


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## Tigger (Mar 25, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> I’ve had discussions with agency leaders who believe that their 911 staff should be able to perform community paramedicine during their downtime. These people clearly do not understand the differences between 911 response and mobile integrated health. They are about as far apart as can be and still be considered a Paramedic. A complete divergence of skills and practice mindset.


My old job did this and it worked absolutely terribly and alienated a significant portion of the staff. People were fine with adding a new disposition for behavioral calls, but beyond that attitudes rapidly declined.


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## EpiEMS (Mar 26, 2022)

Tigger said:


> My old job did this and it worked absolutely terribly and alienated a significant portion of the staff. People were fine with adding a new disposition for behavioral calls, but beyond that attitudes rapidly declined.



Was it the downtime use portion or the orientation away from emergencies?


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## Tigger (Mar 29, 2022)

EpiEMS said:


> Was it the downtime use portion or the orientation away from emergencies?


All of the above.


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## CerealKing (Mar 30, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> If you take any Community Paramedic review course or just buy the textbook, you’ll have no issues.


Is there a particular course or book you would recommend?


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## PotatoMedic (Mar 30, 2022)

https://emscoordinator.com/ has a free one right now.  Just started yesterday so you haven't missed much.  Plus it's 40 hours of live CE's.  Next class is tonight at 6pm pacific time.


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## NomadicMedic (Apr 1, 2022)

PotatoMedic said:


> https://emscoordinator.com/ has a free one right now.  Just started yesterday so you haven't missed much.  Plus it's 40 hours of live CE's.  Next class is tonight at 6pm pacific time.



the biggest help was the JB learning content. Hopefully your textbook came within the code. Also, the test prep guide was very helpful. https://communityparamedic.thinkific.com/courses/theguide


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## PotatoMedic (Apr 1, 2022)

NomadicMedic said:


> the biggest help was the JB learning content. Hopefully your textbook came within the code. Also, the test prep guide was very helpful. https://communityparamedic.thinkific.com/courses/theguide


My book should be here today so I'll get to dive into that here shortly.  Figured I'll do the class that uses the book and then take the test.  It's only 400 dollars!


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## NomadicMedic (Apr 3, 2022)

It honestly wasn’t difficult, just different. Good luck.


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