But my issue with Vent's post is not that teachers shouldn't but the supposition that a teacher can be taught to do this adequately and to assess the need, but not an EMT B. If the skill can be taught adequately to someone with no medical experience at all beyond that CPR/FA class, it certainly can be taught to EMT Bs as an adjunct skill.
To imply that by virtue of 4+ years spent learning something other than EMS means a teacher can learn the skill better than an EMS worker offered the same training is elitist.
Again, not all of the 2000 teachers in our system were instructed on this "skill".
But, since you mentioned it:
People with college education do have a better chance of picking up skills and KNOWLEDGE faster than those that have no formal education beyond high school. They have already demonstrated the discipline to go through 4 years of college. EMT-Bs do not always discipline themselves to advance by education but rather focus purely on another SKILL. States that continue to promote more certs for skills and not actual education are not helping the cause either. I believe Washington state falls into that category with their 6 - 7 certifications based on skills.
There are reasons for why there should be college prerequisites prior to taking EMT-B or Paramedic. The student will be able to develop some discipline for studying. Without these, you can expect thread after thread on the many forums about how hard the EMT class is.
It has already been shown on this thread that some who where opposed to teachers giving glucagon actually had little knowledge about pediatric diabetes even at a Paramedic level. I'm sure a few with EMT-B had even less knowledge but were still agruing it should only be their skill. So one might take that to be more of a "turf" thing in a place where egos should not come to play.
I'm sure by now MMiz has done his own research as an educator about pediatric diabetes in addition to whatever his school system and the parent give him.
Teachers in some areas are made aware the various disease processes and disabilities that the children have through inservices and continued training by RNs and RRTs involved in the education system. The teachers then may need to individualize access to different eduational activities the the children with medical needs. Parents are usually more than happy to give the teacher their own inservices and whatever information to see that their child is safe.
Times are changing with different health habits and medical science being able to save 23 week gestation babies. We have had to teach parents with very little education and high levels of education to provide for these babies if they don't grow up perfectly healthy. The school systems have had to become more educated also to accomondate these children.
EMS should be joining in to become more educated about this population and educating instead of fighting the educators, kids, parents, professional associations and other healthcare providers every step of the way because they think it is solely their turf.
Yes, EMT-Bs can learn this "skill" but don't make the kids wait for their arrival. Kids want to be active and not restrained to just an area of easy access for EMS.
As the links I posted earlier stated, many school systems have had this in place over 10 years.
These kids are not going away. Attitudes need to change or maybe we should just stop saving the children that aren't born "perfect". Maybe the kids with medical needs should just be home schooled for the sake of not having this argument and having people get their feelings hurt.
EMS also needs to change its attitude about education and stop bashing those who have it just because they don't. You would be surprised how easy some things become once you start advancing your education.
