EMT scope of practice

[rescue99]

Sort of. It's not so much that EMT's (by that I mean basics) are such a vital part, it's that things are included in EMS that shouldn't be (NETS; non-emergency transport services; dialysis runs, hospital to home transfers) and, as far as I know, medicare does not recognize anything lower than an EMT, like a first responder. The majority of transfers would do fine with someone with less training than an EMT, but there isn't any recognized national level that can get reimbursement. So the EMT has to be used, which would create problems if the educational level was increased. A better solution would be to increase the education, reform medicare so that services could still get reimbursement even if an EMT wasn't used (for certain situations) and allow first responders to pick up the slack. But that would take a HUGE amount of effort from a lot of people.

Out of curiosity, has the administration looked at the number of people now enrolled in the prereq classes? Is it just a temporary decline, or are people saying screw it and going somewhere that doesn't require the extra education? I applaud what you guys did, and it should be mandatory everywhere, but, I'm unfortunately going to guess that you're running into what happens when one school increases the requirements while the rest don't. Nutz.

Enrollment is way up in the new pre-reqs and it will balance out over the next couple of years. Probably a dozen new A/P courses have been added at the college to accommodate the enrollment increase. I assume the other pre-reqs are the same. Those classes are filled to the brim! A very good thing! By winter semester we should see fuller EMS classes better prepared.

As I remember, when we went through the last big changes they started in 95 but, only a few schools went the extra mile in really improving education before officially implementing NR 2000. The result was a mix of old and new which left us with a fairly wide disparity in the quality of Medics that seemed never ending. Plus, the area was plagued with a 3 year shortage of Medics. Some schools caught up and others never really have.

It's all about to change and the good news is, it will include Basic, Spec and Medic.

 

[triemal04]

Enrollment is way up in the new pre-reqs and it will balance out over the next couple of years. Probably a dozen new A/P courses have been added at the college to accommodate the enrollment increase. I assume the other pre-reqs are the same. Those classes are filled to the brim! A very good thing! By winter semester we should see fuller EMS classes better prepared.

As I remember, when we went through the last big changes they started in 95 but, only a few schools went the extra mile in really improving education before officially implementing NR 2000. The result was a mix of old and new which left us with a fairly wide disparity in the quality of Medics that seemed never ending. Plus, the area was plagued with a 3 year shortage of Medics. Some schools caught up and others never really have.

It's all about to change and the good news is, it will include Basic, Spec and Medic.

That's great. Is it just your college that's doing this, or is it more widespread in Michigan?

 

[rescue99]

Pretty much all of the colleges are now doing the same. Some of the free standings are also jumping on board. If the plan goes well, in a decade they'll all be up to par. Time will tell.

 

[Summit]

Rescue 99: most interesting... you say most schools in your area are now asking for A&P before EMT? That definitely has not been implemented here nor have I heard any noise of it in my program. It would be good though.

MrBrown: Very similar to something I posted in 2005

The 72 hour AS degree EMT

Semester I
English Comp I 3hr
College Algebra 4hr or Statistics 3hr
Biology I /w lab 5hr
Chemistry I /w lab 5hr
Nutrition 3hr or Medical Terminology 2hr
18-20hrs

Semester II
A&P I /w lab 5hr
General Pyschology 3hr or Human Development 3hr
Public Speaking 3hr
Physics I Algebra based /w lab 4hr
Ethics 3hr or Spanish 3hr
18 hrs

Semester III
A&P II /w lab 4hr
Pharmacology 3hr
EMT Didadtic 5hr
EMT Practical 6hr
18hr

Semester IV
Pathophysiology 4hr
IV Therapy 2hr (compressed at the beginning)
Basic EKG 2hr (compressed at the beginning)
EMT Hospital Clinicals 5hr (after IV/EKG)
EMT PreHospital Clinicals 5hr (after Hospital)
Clinicals would be 200hrs.

That first semester will suck without AP credit... but it is guaranteed to weed out the riff-raff.

 

[rescue99]

Rescue 99: most interesting... you say most schools in your area are now asking for A&P before EMT? That definitely has not been implemented here nor have I heard any noise of it in my program. It would be good though.

Most colleges are yes, Summit. We startred out with Spec and Basic having to do A/P and Med Term as a co-reqs at first. Bio is already a pre-req for A/P and Pharm was just added this semester. I know of a couple of free standing schools that are also making A/P and Med Term. part of their requirements now too in the past year. Things are definately looking up.