I understand the importance of education. I've been investing for my childrens' college costs shortly after paying off the medic school debt less than 6 months post grad. [/quote?
Just out of curiousity...how much did you pay for your Paramedic program?
6k. We paid a grand and borrowed 5 from family. We were living paycheck to paycheck since my wife was recently laid off. The immediate salary bump along with OT and per diem work allowed me to pay it off in short fashion.
Since it finally dawned on me that I should legitimize my paramedic degree with an actual degree, I've been telling anyone I've come across that they should do the same, or go degree right away if they're still BLS. They'll be sure to be properly educated, where with a tech school they may be somewhat prepared but will need to fill in the gaps with self study (like me). They'll be able to leapfrog past admin with an EMS BA, since most of these jokers I've seen in EMS admin have little formal education, but just happened to be with their respective agencies from the start and promoted due to seniority.
I ran into our OMD while he was attending at a local hosp. I asked his thoughts on the direction he sees EMS going, if we'll eventually go to an AAS as a minimum. He said what others have said previously - the individual states aren't required to follow the national standard. States with a high proportion of rural areas will resist since EMT-I's are easier to come by than medics.
As far as our particular dept, he did want them to both eliminate the EMT-I as an ALS provider and require an EMS AAS to be employed as a firemedic. Admin responded that they don't have enough of a qualified ALS applicant pool as it is to include that as a condition of employment. Plenty of medics apply, but many are also failing the CPAT, psych, poly, medical, etc. etc. We've dismissed some from the academy, both from the suppression portion and during the ALS internship for failing to meet minimum standards. What the dept has done is eliminate EMT-I's as being considered "medics" for employment. They're also sending their incumbents to medic school for a 2 year degree, the same place I'm going to for the EMS AAS. For the dept to foot the bill and take them off the road for school, they need to complete all of the pre-reqs before consideration.
So, we've now eliminated the EMT-I as an ALS career track, making EMT-P the minimum standard. Incumbents will be trained via a degree program. This will likely result in these degree medics promoting ahead of any tech cert medics into future admin positions, a definite advantage. We also have a 16 week field internship that is included during the recruit process. This is 36 hours/wk on a medic unit, during the week, from 0700-1900, only at busy stations. The recruits also spend 4 hours/wk at our EMS training center for lecture from PA's, an RN and RT, along with skills testing using sim-man/sim baby with a living room mock up and an ambulance mock up on site. This equals 576 hours on the bus, less a holiday or two, with 64 hours of lecture/skills instruction from qualified instructors. That's more ambulance time than many medic programs. These interns had also went through recert for their alphabet cards prior to the ALS internship.
It's definitely more than most FD's do to ensure compentency in their EMS personnel. A degree isn't yet the standard, but that's more a function of availability of qualified applicants. The more that apply, the more conditions of employment you can impose.
If organization of EMS remains a largely impossible task at the moment, there's really only one other way to effect a movment of employers requiring degrees for employment - the few that hold degrees will go for the BA, then later promote to admin. positions where they can change policy. These employers will have to offer a better deal than their competitors for this to work, however. If employers do this right now, they won't have anyone qualified to apply. Sure, that would cause future applicants to come with diploma in hand, except that they won't survive the medic shortage they've created at their agency in the interim.
The reason I bring this up is that other healthcare agencies have become educated before seeking compensation. So few hold degrees in EMS that it's currently impossible to require degree for employment in most places. In the case of EMS I don't see many going degree over cert without the compensation already being in place. The industry expanded with only tech certs being required. Sure, compensation has been low due to lack of education, but it's now a catch 22. Organize/unionize.
