"My instructor was the best."

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Veneficus

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As our time and discussions go by, we often talk about what makes good and bad instructors.

I think it was ridryder who once pointed out here that most people only ever meet the instructors they had in school. By extension, it seems they have absoltely nothing to compare it to.

Now on occasion I have let people know from their discriptions here that their instructors may be lacking.

But I figured I would open a discussion on it.

How good/bad were your EMS instructors?

How did you reach that conclusion?

Did you inquire about their background and credentials prior to the start of class?

Is it based on whether or not you liked them?

Tell us about your experience. Be descriptive.
 
My EMT instructor was really good. we started with 45 students and only 14 graduated tho. but he was dedicated to teaching us. he gave us his phone number and his address. if we were having trouble understanding us we could call him or go to his house or to his work and he would be more then willing to help us day or night. he would come and help us at our study groups and go out to dinner with us. the way i learn is by being taught by someone who is still working in the EMS field. on graduation he told us if we drink and think about driving home then call him and he will come get us. he related everything to calls he has gone on in the past of calls he did yesterday. even tho i am out of EMT class we still talk and hang out. that is what makes him a good instructor and thats what sets him apart from other instructors i have seen. most instructors are there for you just the day you are in school not every single day of the week. he helped another student move houses. being a good instructor is more then just teaching.
 
My EMT-IV instructor was fantastic. She had over 20 years experience in EMS, she was still actively working in the field, held a bachelors of nursing, and worked as Supervisor, FTO, Service Director, and Clinical Coordinator throughout those years. She was also a committee member with one of the TN EMS Education Associations, and is now a regional director for the state.

My Paramedic instructor was initially licensed in 1979 or somewhere around that time. He is a member of the TN Board of EMS, plays an active role in curriculum development for paramedic programs, and he held every position you can imagine a Paramedic having. He also had a Masters of Organizational Leadership.

I was pleased with both of these instructors because they didn't spoon feed the content. We have all seen instructors who would baby students and at the last minute decide to give someone a "B" instead of a "C" because they were a few points away. These instructors weren't like that. You had to work hard.. If you got a 90, that's because you earned a 90, not because you made an 88 and he/she rounded up. If you could not cut it, you were dropped from the program, simple as that. They were tough, and we pretty much hated them throughout the duration of our programs, but one thing is for sure.. We respected them, and looking back, we were thankful to have had them because they made us what we are.
 
Mixed bag.

EMT-A (tech college 1977), two good instructors whose teaching styles and experiences were complementary (one was captain of a small vollie dept, and one was younger hotshot in charge of the MICU project at a local teaching hospital).
Nursing college: can't even remember an emergency instructor per se (as a nursing and medical colege, we got anatomy, physiology, pharmacodynamics, etc as separate courses) we did a ten week clinical (two nights a week) minus some nights for some reason, during which some (a few) students did a lot, and some like me did almost nothing. It used to be a twenty week course, but since the OR refused to take us for a full semester anymore, we had to cram both ER and OR into one semester. My ER ambulance ridealong was a joke since I'd already worked ambulance for three years, as I was starting to leave early for the night on their say-so they started watching stag movies.
ACLS: at Phoenix University in 1986, Dr McSwain stuck his head in and gave us a one-day on the field as a whole, other instrutors were rushed and gabve us about "C"-level attention.
CMRT (Combat Medical Readiness Training) at Alpena, had basic stuff we should have been taught like map and compass, (GPS was just being rolled out), LOAC, sidearms use and maintenance (9mm M9), plus a cursory introduction to combat injuries and barebones treatment. Instructors: not educated enough, but good instructors. (Yes, you can be both, but you're going down swinging).
Volk Field Cadre trainers: more combat stuff like UXO and transport under fire, again these were not highly educated individuals but they were enthusiastic and we covered a lot of ground fast.

As a whole, generally ok at lowest levels, but not enough at higher levels. I think our MD's and most Army/Marine trainees had better than we had in USAF/Air Nat Guard.


 
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My EMT-B instructor absolutely sucked. When only 3 students out of a class of 32 pass the NREMT-B the first time, and only 2 more pass on a retest; I'd have to say that is a pretty clear case of instructor failure.

For instance, during the night we were supposed to learn about airway management, he spent about 3/4 of the night talking about how his fellow officers and him (he was also a LEO), would "sodomize squad cars with inflatable penises". He also said he would pass any female in the class who could take a combitube without gagging.

Needless to say, he's no longer an instructor...and I'm proud to say I had no small part in having his credentials yanked.

My EMT-I instructor was a very knowledgeable street paramedic with the focus of educating students to think about what they're doing and why instead of being a cookbook provider. During our clinicals, she actually wanted us to come back with a patient contact about NOT starting an IV and have a valid reason for it. She absolutely could not stand the "if you're in my rig, you're getting an IV" philosophy so many students seem to have.
 
Mine also wasn't that great. He was older and hadn't been in the field for a long time. He also used the fear method... If you did something wrong, he'd yell at you.
 
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My basic instructor was alright. He followed the curriculum and passed along the info needed to fulfill the class requirements. Sort of a journeyman performance.

My paramedic instructor was fan-freaking-tastic! Prior to taking the assistant dean over the EMS job she had been an assistant instructor at our local med school helping teach gross anatomy. She had a Masters in physiology, a 20 year background in EMS and a true passion for teaching. Were her classes hard? Damn right they were hard, we lost about 50% of our class. However as I come in contact with more and more EMS educational programs I realize how fortunate I am to have the background I do. If you finished her program you didn't just know protocol monkey stuff, you had at least a tenuous grasp of what was going on at the cellular level.
 
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My EMT instructor was a crusty old paramedic/LPN that was so hung up on his war stories that he forgot to teach anything. His style was dry, he had no sense of humor, and he had a call to relate to anything you can imagine. The occasional "I once saw this" story is one thing, but a constant barrage of how awesome you are and how much stuff you have seen and done is overkill.

My IV tech instructor was witty, helpful, engaging, and an all around nice guy. He is very popular and is an instructor at a major university in my home state.

My paramedic instructor was Bob Page. That class was a big awesome cake with awesome frosting and sprinkles. Although I'm now an experienced paramedic, I do have a brand new job in my home state, some 1200 miles from Bob's class. I was sitting around talking to one of the supervisors during my orientation shift and my preceptor told her who taught my class. She called me a Goddess and asked me to teach her something. He is extremely popular in my area. Aside from that, his class was great and his standards tough. I felt that he didn't prepare us for the NR exam, he prepared us to be critical thinkers and he armed us with the tools necessary truly assess our patients, formulate a treatment plan, and to not only understand what we were doing but to be able to explain the reasoning behind our actions. He is the kind of teacher I want to become.
 
Browns Clinical Education Tutors were fantastic, Clinical Education here are all volunteers i.e. they are full time Ambulance Officers (usually with at least 5 years experience) who volunteer to be seconded to Clinical Education and maintain 20% road time. The same goes for our Clinical Standards Officers.

The majority of our Clinical Education Tutors have some form of adult teaching qualification as well as being an Intensive Care Paramedic. Because they volunteer to go off road and do education they actually want to do it and really go the extra mile to help.

Clinical Education teach the Diploma to our volunteers (EMTs) and also the CCE modules, the Paramedic and Intensive Care Paramedic qualifications are taught by University.

University Paramedic faculty who teach the Degree and Post Graduate Diploma generally all have a Masters Degree. Some of the lecturers are Intensive Care Paramedic with the Degree who are working on their Masters or tertiary education qualifications.
 
My EMT instructors were.....okay (one was a much better than the other). They taught the class separately on different nights which caused a lot of confusion for the students because each instructor had a completely different view on how things should be done and sometimes those views contradicted each other. One was great at answering questions, the other usually responded with something along the lines of "because it is" or "I'm not sure." I also think they were pretty careless when grading quizzes and tests; counting off for correct answers and looking over incorrect ones.
 
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I'm inclined to recall the many good instructors I've had. The trait they shared is that I remember exactly what they said and/or did to teach me certain specific things. I still "hear" them sometimes when I'm assessing or treating patients. Although I liked most of them, that certainly wasn't a prerequisite; some of the lessons were unpleasant and complicated by my inability to see the big picture.

I might have asked informally about some of them beforehand, but I don't remember ever formally checking their credentials.

Specifics? There are so many. A lot of worthwhile sessions involved very strident, almost adversarial feedback that I don't think I could duplicate now, 20 years later, without students complaining to administrators. I think there's less tolerance today in the academic world for instructors who aren't politically correct. Same with bosses, but that's another topic.
 
My EMT B instructor was great. My class with him started with him trying to kick me out for being under 18, and ended with him giving me the best letter of recommendation I have ever received. I can't specifically remember anything he taught me, but he was good. He was very no-nonsense, and wouldn't BS people. When we covered scene safety he actually brought up the problems with the scene on 9/11 (this was 2003).

My paramedic academy was hit or miss. We had 3 main instructors, with varying levels of experience. I don't remember there being anything horrendous or especially fantastic about them. The biggest problem I had was they used a screwy grading system, where 100-94% was an A, 93-87% a B, 86-80% a C. We had to have an 80% average or higher, which wasn't a problem. But it screwed with everyone's GPA and then they changed it to a normal system the class after mine.
 
ffemt8978 said:
My EMT-B instructor absolutely sucked. When only 3 students out of a class of 32 pass the NREMT-B the first time, and only 2 more pass on a retest; I'd have to say that is a pretty clear case of instructor failure.

For instance, during the night we were supposed to learn about airway management, he spent about 3/4 of the night talking about how his fellow officers and him (he was also a LEO), would "sodomize squad cars with inflatable penises". He also said he would pass any female in the class who could take a combitube without gagging.

Needless to say, he's no longer an instructor...and I'm proud to say I had no small part in having his credentials yanked.

My EMT-I instructor was a very knowledgeable street paramedic with the focus of educating students to think about what they're doing and why instead of being a cookbook provider. During our clinicals, she actually wanted us to come back with a patient contact about NOT starting an IV and have a valid reason for it. She absolutely could not stand the "if you're in my rig, you're getting an IV" philosophy so many students seem to have.
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Ok, he ( the LEO) sucks. But, passing NR the first time is not a measure of any self respecting instructor. NR really needs to stop making the one-swipe deal so important. Many people need 2 to pass for a whole host of reasons.

The goal of a program is to facilitate, to educate and to mentor a new set of skills and to help students critically apply new knowledge....which your LEO instructor seemed to have some difficulty in doing. Ya landed a good one the second time though :)
 
MrBrown said:
Browns Clinical Education Tutors were fantastic, Clinical Education here are all volunteers i.e. they are full time Ambulance Officers (usually with at least 5 years experience) who volunteer to be seconded to Clinical Education and maintain 20% road time. The same goes for our Clinical Standards Officers.

The majority of our Clinical Education Tutors have some form of adult teaching qualification as well as being an Intensive Care Paramedic. Because they volunteer to go off road and do education they actually want to do it and really go the extra mile to help.

Clinical Education teach the Diploma to our volunteers (EMTs) and also the CCE modules, the Paramedic and Intensive Care Paramedic qualifications are taught by University.

University Paramedic faculty who teach the Degree and Post Graduate Diploma generally all have a Masters Degree. Some of the lecturers are Intensive Care Paramedic with the Degree who are working on their Masters or tertiary education qualifications.
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Brown didn't really say how his actual education was though????? All Brown did was tell us what their pedigree papers read. Note how Brown says good things of ONLY the Medics?? Perhaps a goal more worthy of reaching someday, eh Mr. Brown ;)
 
I basically had the same people for both my EMT and Paramedic education. The program director for both was certainly a "dinosaur" medic to say the least - licensed back in the 70s at some point. Eventually became an RN and worked as a flight medic/nurse for about 10 years or so before going into full-time teaching, and got an MEd degree.

Most of the other faculty for our program came from EMS/Nursing backgrounds and typically all had masters degrees - there was also a PA but he hasn't been all that active for several years and mostly functions as an administrator as I understand.

For the most part, they were all quite good. One of them, however, just needed to spare us our suffering and just retire already. She had a great, dry sense of humor but my God her level of burnout was just palpable - I got absolutely nothing out of her lectures. The program itself was immensely challenging, and we lost over 40% of our class. We covered things to an extraordinary depth and comprehensive understanding of the material was expected of us at every step of the program. Literally every quiz and exam we had was comprehensive and had material on it from many weeks prior.

At university, the faculty for my EMS degree has been excellent. Most of them are former medics who have gone on to obtain advanced degrees (primarily master's level, but several have PhD's) and some are still on the road. Totally different methodological approach as compared to my primary paramedic training program, however. Far more accommodating and work very hard to create a learning environment that is not "hostile" to student questioning. Being at a university with a medical school has had its advantages as well, as we've had a number of MD's come and guest lecture for us.
 
Brown thinks this Pilgrim fellow has been into the shermstick again, such quality sounding programs cannot exist within the state of California, it is contravened by the fact such existence would undo the very fabric of the space time continuum :D

For the purposes of this post, Loma Linda University is not recognised as part of the state of California :P

Yes, Brown is taking the piss ...
 
MrBrown said:
Brown thinks this Pilgrim fellow has been into the shermstick again,
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Can't be as bad as Vegemite. ;)

such quality sounding programs cannot exist within the state of California, it is contravened by the fact such existence would undo the very fabric of the space time continuum :D
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It's an anomaly, to be sure. California, as odd as it may sound, actually does have some decent paramedic schools. The problem is no one goes to them, and of those that do the school's efforts are lost due to the students being swept away into the local FD's highly anti-intellectual culture. So, whatever passion the student may have developed for paramedicine as a result of the program's influence is certainly decimated by the culture of the organization they become employed at.

Also, as good as my primary paramedic program was there are/were several things I would have changed about it. It was far too short for the the amount and depth of material we covered which resulted in a handful of things being somewhat "dumbed down" that I later discovered weren't quite correct. And the learning environment was not exactly "open" at all.

For the purposes of this post, Loma Linda University is not recognised as part of the state of California :P
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I'm perfectly willing to concede this...actually it would make sense given the utterly awful wasteland of the municipality immediately surrounding our Holy City on the Hill.
 
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