I have a friend who is a corporate pilot.  Alan has flown jets for years and so I was surprised one day when Alan announced that he was going to back to school for a week to learn a new aircraft.  It seems his company was adding a Gulfstream jet to its fleet of Citation jets.  In order to make the transition, all of the pilots were heading back for a week of school to learn the new aircraft.  It seems that while the basic principles of lift, weight, thrust and drag remain the same for flight; achieving the balance of these principles in a way that keeps you from creating a hole in the ground is dependent upon knowing how the aircraft you are flying works.  As Alan said, “They’re not teaching me to fly, Jon.  They’re teaching me not to crash.”

 Over the past few weeks, we have been asked a number of times why instructors who are paramedics must attend the train the trainer course.  The assertion is that they already know the material.  This brings to mind my friend Alan’s experience.  The train the trainer is not about teaching you how to teach prehospital medicine.  The train the trainer is about teaching you how to use the EMS transition bridge courses.  We will not be spending time teaching you the lift, weight, thrust, and drag of prehospital medicine.  If you are coming to the train the trainer we assume that you either know this or have people back home who do.  Our job is to teach you how to teach clinical medicine successfully within the framework of the transition course lesson plans. 

 We are looking forward to seeing you this fall as we move from the development phase into the launching phase of this exciting time in Kansas EMS.