Continuing Education (CEU) - Where do you go?

[MMiz]

Hey,

As the time comes for me to renew my EMT National Registry and my State of Michigan EMT-B license, I'm wondering where everyone goes to get such credits.

I'm pretty sure the NREMT requires that EMTs go through a refresher course. Where do you get the other credits? EMS Expos? Local classes? Are there any weekend classes that you would suggest?

Thanks as always!

 

[SafetyPro2]

Well, the first drill of each month at the FD is an EMS drill by our EMS Coordinator (who's a Captain and Paramedic with another local career department). Each drill's about an hour or two long, and each one counts for re-cert credit.

Unfortunately, I missed most of those drills this year (was travelling a lot with my old job), so I just took the NAEMT's PreHospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) class last weekend, which at 16 hours puts me over my requirement. The class was offered through UCLA's Paramedic program, and they have other classes (including a 1-week EMT recert class) on a regular basis.

 

[Medic2B]

I am very lucky where I work, because they have set up Con Ed 1, 2, and 3, as well as coordinating with the local community college for BTLS, ACLS, AMLS, PHTLS, PALS, and ABTLS courses. So already having that set up, all we have to do is go to the classes that our schedule allows and we are covered.

 

[lastcode]

Check with any of the major hospitals around your area. I know all the ones near me offer weekly classes worth CEUs. Also subscribe to JEMS magazine. It has lots of great articles, and as a subscriber you can mail in the tests in each issue in exchange for CEUs in most states.

 

[MMiz]

I actually found out I can get all the continuing education EMT-B credits for my state (30 required) online. It's need that there is online EMT-B and EMT-P credits available, and even cooler that my state accepts them.

The national registry on the other hand will only take 24 of those credits. In addition I'll need 24 credits, and a EMT-B Refresher course. I'm thinking about doing a PHTLS or BTLS class, any comments on either? I also know that I can get credits from the upcoming Michigan EMS expo, so that's tempting. My company also offers 1 or 2 per month, but I rather get more done at one time.

Any comments on any of those courses, especially the PHTLS and BTLS?

Thanks as always

 

[SafetyPro2]

Like I said, I took PHTLS a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. It was put on by the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care, which runs the UCLA/Daniel Freeman Paramedic School (the original in SoCal and one of the originals in the country) which has some really top notch faculty. There wasn't really much "new" taught in the class that I hadn't heard in my EMT training, but the way it was all put together was very helpful, and there were some good tips on rapid patient assessment that were new. Plus, it's a mixed class with all different levels of responders (we were about 1/3 Paramedics and the rest EMT-1s and a couple of nurses), so as an EMT I got to see some "out-of-scope" stuff too, and they let us try some of the things we don't normally get to do (like needle crichs and intubation) just to get familiar with them.

 

[MMiz]

Originally posted by SafetyPro@Apr 3 2004, 05:27 PM
Like I said, I took PHTLS a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. It was put on by the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care, which runs the UCLA/Daniel Freeman Paramedic School (the original in SoCal and one of the originals in the country) which has some really top notch faculty. There wasn't really much "new" taught in the class that I hadn't heard in my EMT training, but the way it was all put together was very helpful, and there were some good tips on rapid patient assessment that were new. Plus, it's a mixed class with all different levels of responders (we were about 1/3 Paramedics and the rest EMT-1s and a couple of nurses), so as an EMT I got to see some "out-of-scope" stuff too, and they let us try some of the things we don't normally get to do (like needle crichs and intubation) just to get familiar with them.

Interesting, I'm looking into taking the PHTLS course this summer along with an EMT-B refresher course. The whole online emt CEU thing is also nice, and I'll probably end up taking lots of credits through there.

Hopefully I still remember the technical stuff from my class two years ago