New employee orientation? New provider training?

[Summit]

NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION?
How long does your agency spend training a new employee on protocols, policies, equipment, and educational updates?

Does your agency precept experienced new hires? How long?

NEW PROVIDER TRAINING?
Does your agency offer classroom, skills, and simlab training for new providers? How much?

How long does your agency precept new Paramedics? EMTs?

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I remember as a new EMT working on a 911 ambulance, I received no new provider training. I remember about 4 or 8 hours of policy, protocol and equipment training and perhaps 5 or 6 shifts of third riding. Everything else was just OTJ by my partner. I remember that new ALS providers were precepted longer than that.

 

[DesertMedic66]

2 weeks of policy training and learning about different laws.

15 shifts of Field Training time. And that's all.

 

[Crackcicle]

FDNY - we get 9 weeks coming in as a a paramedic including a full refresher, sim lab, policies and physical training

 

[med51fl]

8 week recruit academy during which you get 40 hours of EMS orientation (this is for already certified FF / Paramedics). Then out to the field for 1 year probation with daily evaluations by Company officer and quarterly fire skills testing along with a workbook that has to have EMS and fire skills signed off. Usually you are assigned to a company for 3 months.

 

[titmouse]

A week of classroom ed. One of those of days was for evoc, followed by the toughbook tutorial the next. We also got to checkout the stretchers, Stryker Power Pro (which I am glad we have lol) . Tomorrow I start the field trainig

 

[Summit]

40 hours of EMS orientation (this is for already certified FF / Paramedics). Then out to the field for 1 year probation with daily evaluations by Company officer

Does that mean you are precepted during all your EMS calls for a year?

 

[Glider]

AMR-
3daysx8hours: company policies, HIPAA, videos, horror stories, blackbox, all that good stuff.

1, 8hr day of half EVOC / Meds (EMS Charts essentially) training.

~30hr of what the called field training, but it was really just third riding and doing all the paperwork...

thats was it.

 

[NomadicMedic]

A week of admin type stuff, clinical skills day, OR for tubes, orientations with DSP and the local HEMS. Then 3 to 6 months of mentoring/evaluation with an FTO. When you complete the FTO time, you're cleared as a "Paramedic I" an can work with another medic as a partner.

 

[phideux]

One place I worked we spent about a week doing all the HR stuff and EVOC, then you rode as a third until the FTO thought you were ready to solo. I went 2 shifts as a third and she cut me loose. They did all the weeding out during the pre-hire testing.
Another place I worked, I pretty much knew most of the people there, they turned me loose my first shift.

 

[Handsome Robb]

NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION?
How long does your agency spend training a new employee on protocols, policies, equipment, and educational updates?

Does your agency precept experienced new hires? How long?

Yes. Orientation is 3 8 hour days, all "housekeeping" stuff such as pay, vacations, policies, all the boring HR stuff. Intermediates do a 2 day 8 hr/day academy. Medics do a 5 day 8hr/day academy. The academy consists of equipment familiarization, ePCR familiarization and education, protocol review and examinations. Intermediates do a single protocol exam. Medics do a med math exam, 3 protocol examinations (policies, adults, pediatrics) and two scenario based tests (one pediatric, one adult). After clearing FTO time as a medic you're on probation with every chart, including your partner's, reviewed by QA/QI for anywhere from 1-6 months on the discretion of the clinical development personnel.

Intermediates do 3 a 3 week FTO period with the option to be extended to 5 weeks.

Medics do a 6 week FTO period with the option to be extended to 10 weeks. Clinical direction wanted more, operations wanted less so they met in the middle.

Intermediates promoting to medic still do the 5 day academy but their FTO time is shortened by one week due to "not having to teach them to drive or map".

All new hires go through the same FTO period, experience or not.

NEW PROVIDER TRAINING?
Does your agency offer classroom, skills, and simlab training for new providers? How much?

Yes, we do FR, basic, intermediate and medic. Also do all the alphabet soup you could think of, EMS Instructor, alphabet soup instructor, host certain nursing classes such as TNATCC, do monthly CEU lectures (some with lab components, some without), community CPR, BLS, a babysitting program and a handful of other programs as well.

Also every field employee is required to do an "annual skills" class and a "protocol update" class every year. Usually 2 hours each.

Field staff is encouraged to pick up shifts in education teaching lab nights.

If you take the PALS, ACLS, and ITLS refreshers every two years and go to every monthly CEU we offer it exceeds the requirements to recert NREMT-P.

We have a bunch of high fidelity mannequins and are in the process of remodeling our education center. We have a pretty extensive and respected education center that consistently exceeds minimum requirements.

 

[Summit]

It is interesting to see the disparity of new provider/new employee orientation in EMS. There seem to be some really good programs and some really anemic programs. This thread also has turned into a Continuing Professional Development thread, which is cool.

I was just thinking to myself when looking at what my employer does for all nurses and new nurses… I thought about how anemic I felt my new EMT-B experience was as far as workplace training. I guess I should say that there was a good deal of continuing support, offering monthly CEs, paying for many certifications and even reimbursing EMTs to take college A&P. The director was actually very pro education.

Comparing to nursing, the facility I work for makes all employees do 3x8hr days of general policies, time keeping, safety etc. All RNs then do 5x8hr days of nursing policies, skill check/signoffs, equipment training, med tests, didactic research updates, and best practices.

New nurses are then put in a formal 1 year Nursing Residency program. What that involves for the critical care areas is 60x8 hour days of critical care didactic (including AACN ECCO), evidence based practice research updates, sim labs, ACLS, 12lead, critical care procedures, C/T surgical observation, critical hospital service orientation (rotate through PACU, ED, IV, IR/cathlab etc), and new graduate transition strategies.

At the same time new nurses do up to 100x12hr ICU shifts that are precepted 1:1 by a CCRN until they are cleared (usually after 80). Nurses are then independent, but on probation for up to 1.5 years longer. Experienced nurses new to critical care still go through about 75% of what is listed above.

The facility then supplies many professional development opportunities including constant inservices, inhouse courses, 400+ free online CE trainings, up to $2K/yr for tuition, and further reimbursement for conferences. Additionally, AACN offers 300+ online CE courses free to its members.

 

[Handsome Robb]

I'll add that all required courses are free to employees as well as any CEUs our education center puts on. Any other classes are at a discounted rate, usually ~ 50%