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We spent Saturday in Overland Park at Johnson County Community College teaching day one of the train the trainer for Region V. They stepped up to the plate to host one more session for those who missed out this fall. A great group of people!
Course Coordinators:
A new EMT Student Manual, version 2-1 was posted on the Coordinator site this evening.
If you have already printed the EMT Student Manual 2-0, there is an addendum that can simply be added to what you have. The addendum includes a new Master Checkoff Sheet and worksheets for Pulse Oximetry and NTG administration.
EMR and EMT version 2-1 files for Transition Coordinators have been posted to the shared site. An e-mail with further information was sent to Coordinators earlier this evening. Please e-mail us if you have questions.
The transition is a complicated process. Moving approximately 8,000 people from an existing level to a new and higher level of practice requires attention to detail by individual instructors and coordinators.
I’ll use myself as an example. I can’t monitor quality in your classroom but I can in mine. As an instructor, my focus is on ensuring that I am teaching the transition bridge materials in a manner that meets what the State is asking of me, what my students need from me, what the subject requires, and with the end goal in mind that my students need to know the scope of practice to the same standard as every other certified provider at the same level in Kansas. By working to ensure this in my little corner of the world I help make the transition process successful. Your responsibility is the same.
The transition is an exciting time. For some, add to that excitement the word “scary.” This is not just for those needing to transition, but for those who are responsible for teaching them. Despite some fear mixed in with the excitement, this is a wonderful opportunity for educators at all levels to make a strong and long-lasting impact on EMS in Kansas.
If a currently Kansas certified First Responder, EMT-Basic, EMT-Defibrillator, or EMT-Intermediate does not complete the transition within the alloted time, that provider will no longer be a certified EMS provider in Kansas.
We have been working on the final curriculum update. This includes corrections in the Instructor Manual, Student Manual, and Media. It also includes updates for the AHA 2010 Standards.
If you are a Transition Coordinator, you will receive an e-mail when all of the new material is posted to the private coordinator workspace.
Several have asked about a timeframe for this update. We are working steadily toward a release on or before December 24. We appreciate your patience as we review and correct almost 2,000 pages.
In short, yes. The leeway that coordinators and instructors have is that some students will enter class having already mastered some of the content. An example is the use of a blood glucometer. In this case, the information in the lesson plan must be presented. However, the instructor would be able to make this more of a discussion rather than a lecture because of students’ pre-existing knowledge.
Regarding assessment: For the practical skills, they still need to show competency, but this can be often be achieved with less lab practice time for those individuals who are already using the skill. The students will still be expected to pass the module Post-Test with a 75% or higher score.
Assessment of successful completion of the transition bridge curricula, as approved by the Kansas Board of EMS, is a 75% or greater score on the module Post-Tests as included in the curricula and two successful demonstrations of skill competency as detailed on the Skill Check Sheets in the curricula. The assessment of competency is done using test and check sheet tools provided.
Each course has a lesson plan, formulary, media, task analysis for each skill in the course, skill check sheets, lab support materials, pre-tests, and post-tests. The skill check sheets are used to determine competency in each skill. Competency is to be shown two times with no critical errors by each student – at separate times. From the course designer standpoint, these should be done on different days. In other words, competency shows should not be done back to back. The idea is that by having the competency shows at separate times, there is a higher possibility that the student will retain the information and skill. The check sheets must be signed by the student and instructor.
As noted previously, the Post-Tests and signed Skill Check Sheets must be retained for five (5) years.
When the Friesen Group developed the courses, we did so with time lengths specified by the Kansas Board of EMS. The estimated time frames as of December 3, 2010 are:
- First Responder to Emergency Medical Responder will be approximately 16 hours in length.
- EMT-Basic to EMT will be approximately 28 hours in length.
- EMT-Intermediate to Advanced EMT will be approximately 116 hours in length.
- EMT-Defibrillator to Advanced EMT requires completion of an EMT-Intermediate Course before the bridge course is taken and will be approximately 200 – 250 hour total between the two courses.
Did you notice the word “approximately” in each line? I use that word intentionally because the curricula, as approved by the Kansas Board of EMS, are competency based. This means that as an instructor you have some estimate of the time it should take to teach each lesson, but in the end it depends upon the ability of the student to show competency. So, it could take less or more time, depending upon the student, the student to instructor ratios, and other variables in the classroom.
As of this writing, the final AEMT scope remains in question. We will continue to post updates as further information is made available.
Teaching an approved transition course does not require attendance at one of the train-the-trainer courses. It does require that you be certified at or above the level you are teaching or be a subject matter expert. This gets a little tricky in the transition.
Let’s start with existing providers. One would think that because he or she is a certified EMT, they can teach the EMT transition course. This is not true. The new EMT scope has information that an existing EMT does not know. Therefore, to teach the course as an EMT, one needs to have successfully completed the course first and have gained a deeper understanding of the material than is in the lesson plan.
So, the next question is likely, “I am an EMT. How am I supposed to get the course when I am the one who does all of the teaching in my community?” This is a fair question and is the reason that the Board of EMS has said that subject matter experts can also teach the material. For example, a local respiratory therapist might teach the airway module or a physician assistant (PA) teach the pharmacology module. A short definition of a subject matter expert:
- The person is certified at or above the level they are teaching, or
- The person possesses a non-EMS licensure or certification in the area of the topic.
Course coordinators will want to be able to defend their choice of the person as a subject matter expert, and, whoever teaches, the person needs to know the information in great depth – ”past the lesson plan.”
This subject matter expert option should open enough doors to qualified instructors to enable communities to push forward with transition courses. The course coordinator can take the bridge at the same time as the rest of the people in the agency.
