Monthly Archive

Yes, it has been a while since I posted.  I’ve been a bit consumed over the past several months as we push this project towards the completion of the development stage and ready for the implementation stage. 

As we enter into the final push, we loaded up the laptops and headed to our Colorado branch office to work “off the grid”.  It is amazing what you can get done when you don’t have email, the Internet, or telephone distractions.  Here is a view from the office we had for a few days.  It was nice to get back to the sweltering heat of Kansas after several days of cool, crisp, mountain air.

Colorado Branch Office

I thought you would be interested to know the projected estimates for hours in each of the transition courses:

Emergency Medical Responder - 16 hours (Must be completed in the two-year recertification cycle.)  This will be a busy transition course with a lot of enhancements to the EMR scope of practice.  Instructors and students should expect to be busy as they work to complete this bridge course in the 16 hour time frame!

Emergency Medical Technician - 24 to 28 hours (Must be completed in the two-year recertification cycle.)   Remember, you must have 28 total hours to renew so if your bridge course is only 24 hours you have 4 more hours to complete!

Advanced Emergency Medical Technician - 116 + hours (Approximate.  This must be completed over two recertification cycles [4 years].)    The estimated time for AEMT is just that, estimated.  It really depends upon the knowledge level of the instructors teaching the course and of the students taking the bridge course, as well as the speed with which students pick up the new material.  If they have a strong grasp on their EMT-Intermediate knowledge and are enthusiastic about studying and learning, I suspect the course will move along.  If they have let their foundational knowledge slip away over time or do not have strong study habits, you will likely need to plan for more than 116 hours. 

In the next few weeks we will be finalizing lesson plans, cleaning up media, spell checking task analysis and check sheet documents, and rolling out sample syllabi and schedules.  We’ve also got some work to do on pre and post tests for modules.  So, we’re down to the details and getting close to the end.

A big “thank you” to the people who have been helping us by reviewing and giving feedback on the development of lessons.  It has been very rewarding to have both field providers and physicians who have given strong recommendations to ensure that the lessons are meaningful and on target.