Yes, that was pretty standard in the programs and the textbooks. I can not imagine some of the procedures being taught today in the 3 month wonder classes. I can not imagine some of the agencies with poor medical oversight keeping their skills or knowledge up to par especially when even ETI and IV skills are in question. We seem to have a problem keeping people competent in the few skills and medications that are available now in prehospital.
People want to do the "cool" stuff but quickly loose interest when they realize what type of commitment they will need to maintain their skills. The industry already has had too many botched crics because people thought since they were shown once in Paramedic school, they are proficient for a lifetime. I can see the same mentality happening with other procedures also.
Many of the things emt-student mentioned are available to some EMS agencies. Most are available for Flight or specialty. Storage and cost are major issues. The cost is more from maintaining the skills of the providers. The number of times the skill may get used may not outweigh the cost or benefit. Very rural areas can be the exception. Many of the thrombolytics studies in the 80s and 90s were done in large city areas like Miami where you are not that far from any hospital. During that time we were also experiencing the Cath-in-a Can era which practically had a cath lab chasing the ambulance.
Even the teams that do routinely use advanced skills are still required to train and retrain. That goes for the "regular" stuff like intubation and IVs. Much of the advanced practices actually require more education and knowledge than "tech" skills. IABP, LVADs and Ventilators are pieces of technology that doesn't take much to learn how to turn knobs but if one doesn't have the education and knowledge, one can do some serious harm to the patient.
