Education Level of Your Instructor

[VentMedic]

I have always believed that if EMS can raise the education standards for EMT and Paramedic instructors, the profession might slowly change its attitude about education.

I am curious to see what education level, for either the EMT or Paramedic program, your instructor had.

 

[MMiz]

Our lead instructor had a Masters degree, our other instructors had Bachelors degrees. The classroom/practical tech/assistant had a Masters degree. This was at a community college.

 

[Onceamedic]

All of our instructors (One lead, 2 assistants) had masters degrees and were NREMT-Ps with ride time in the summers.

 

[Sasha]

My instructors are all required to have associates, our program director had a masters in some science, however.

We have 7 instructors total.
Three of which, plus our director, were fire lieutenants.
The rest are FF/P (except one who is a EMT-CCP)
And 4 of which were medics in the military.

So although most of them only have an associates they have a lot of experience to supplement, are all very smart, and amazing Medics and great teachers

Also, 4 out of the 7 have been paramedics longer than I have been alive.

 

[ochacon80]

I dont know what degree my instructor has but he is a Firefighter/Paramedic for Redondo Beach Fire Department, and was very very good in our lectures.

 

[TransportJockey]

EMT-B - ASN, BS in EMS, working on his Masters in education, NM EMT-I
Medic - All instructors NREMT-P, with all but one having masters degrees in education and BS in EMS. The one oddball was a BS of management in EMS and a BSN

 

[Epi-do]

Our program director has a PhD. One or our primary instructors had a BSN and was a NREMT-P. Our other primary instructor is a Lt for a local fire department and an EMT-P. He is going to take NR with us and is also doing pre-reqs for nursing school.

Personally, I think that at least one person within the program should have a degree in education. Just because someone has an upper level degree or has set through the almighty PI class, does not make them a good instructor. At least someone with an education degree would have the theory needed to assist the other instructors within the program to be better teachers. Better teachers can only stregthen a program, which in turn will help in producing better providers, and improve the level of professionalism within EMS.

 

[FF894]

Great poll - I think I already know what some feelings will be but I'll ask anyways - How important do you think having a BS or higher degree is to the education received? Having at least one person with background or degree in education for managing the course aside, does having a degree produce better instructors and therefore increase learning/outcome of skills?

 

[Ridryder911]

It just amazes me, that we require little Johnny's teacher that instructs him to color inside the lines to have a Baccalaureate Degree but for someone to perform a trach only a 40 hour instruction course.. anyone else see the irony?


R/r911

 

[firecoins]

I find it odd that some instructors are not required to be certified as a medic to instruct. All instructors had to be a paramedic to teach.

No RNs taught unless they had current certs as a medic.

The chief instructor has a bachelor's degree.

Our medical director 's educational level is self evident. However we had a change in medical director mid course. The new is awesome and wish we had the whole time.

 

[BossyCow]

Instructor for what? Currently our local chapter of ARC has CPR instructors who have never performed CPR on a person, just dummies.

 

[VentMedic]

Instructor for what?

I have always believed that if EMS can raise the education standards for EMT and Paramedic instructors, the profession might slowly change its attitude about education.

I am curious to see what education level, for either the EMT or Paramedic program, your instructor had.

There are some of us who would like to encourage the young and new to the profession to continue their education.

Currently our local chapter of ARC has CPR instructors who have never performed CPR on a person, just dummies.

There are alot of EMTs who have yet to do their first CPR on a real patient. That doesn't mean they can not demonstrate the procedure. Skills must be practiced regardless how many times you use them. A skill can also be taught by and to just about anyone. It is the additional knowledge that one possesses and their abilility to teach as well as read their students that makes them a valued educator. Many instructors in EMS may excel at one part of the instruction but don't know how to be an effective educator or rely too heavily on personal rescue stories to fill the void of what they may not know.

 

[BossyCow]

There are some of us who would like to encourage the young and new to the profession to continue their education.



There are alot of EMTs who have yet to do their first CPR on a real patient. That doesn't mean they can not demonstrate the procedure. Skills must be practiced regardless how many times you use them. A skill can also be taught by and to just about anyone. It is the additional knowledge that one possesses and their abilility to teach as well as read their students that makes them a valued educator. Many instructors in EMS may excel at one part of the instruction but don't know how to be an effective educator or rely too heavily on personal rescue stories to fill the void of what they may not know.

But ARC is dumbing down their instructor course so that the position of instructor is merely a flesh covered remote control device for the DVD player. I think that if a student in a class has questions, they should be able to get answers from someone who knows because they have seen it.

Everything I've read, been taught and studied on adult education stresses the need for adults to relate the information to something already in their brains, be it an experience, an existing problem or something they have already learned in order to help the conversion from short term memory to long term memory. Without some of that included in a class geared primarily to adults becomes more of a rubber stamp that proves to the agency that the material was offered than an actual teaching experience.

We've all had those classes from the old silverback EMT-P/FF from 'back in the day' that consists more of stories than teaching, but I think there needs to be some personalization of the material presented and a background in the practice of the skills being taught.

Around here, the EMT class is taught by a retired EMT-P who left on a medical disability. Paramedic classes are taught in a nearby county by a staff of degreed professionals at a community college or at Harborview in Seattle or several degreed programs. Lots of options available. Your class will be as good or as fast and cheap as you desire, depending on where you get your training and what you put into it.