Small group work
20 August 2009A few folks in Pennsylvania have recently decided to form a statewide counterpart to NAEMSE. I think this is a great step. Unfortunately, one of the initial bits of information about the group goes almost directly against my ideas about EMS:
The ultimate goal is to help EMS educators to provide improved education to our students to ensure we graduate competent EMS practitioners that are closer to “work ready” than to being simply “entry level competent” upon graduation.
Why? The nursing profession doesn’t really expect it–I don’t know of a nursing position that doesn’t provide a pretty lengthy on-the-job training period for new GNs/RNs–and the medical profession most certainly doesn’t–hence residency. Since there are multiple roles within the practice of EMS–of which 911 calls and inter-facility transports are the major 2–preparing someone to be ready for one role will necessarily detract from the preparation for a different role. We are probably better off giving our students the tools to succeed no matter the environment they end up in. If anything, this sounds like a goal of an evil corporation, looking to get its job applicants pre-trained instead of investing money and time into its employees.
This also touches on the training/education debate. “Work ready” sounds much more like the training goal of a trade, not the educational goal of a profession.
Training and education is what a quality EMS program should deliver. Educators need to ensure students understand why something is being done, while delivering the didactic material in a way that is easily comprehended. A large part of an EMS course is also to teach students how to do something, thus ensuring they are “employable”, meeting the minimal acceptable competencies. The education should continue for as long as the former EMS student, now practitioner, decides to continue in this profession. The agency, region, and state will play an important role in this process.