Re: No Subject

[Guest guest]

Howdy, Ann,

First of all, good to hear from you. I've been off on spring vacation and

then to EMS Today in Denver (wonderful!!!).

Addressing your point about why shouldn't experience lead to licensure, I

think it could in some cases. But like I said, all experience is not equal.

10 years of experience at doing things wrong just equals 10 years of being a

lousy care-giver. On the other hand, for one who's genuinely concerned,

driven to perfection, alive mentally, hungry for knowledge, and has the guts

to put it into action, 10 years' experience may yield a medic who should

certainly be worthy of licensure. The trouble is: how do we tell who's

who? That's the problem.

I've been teaching for a long time, and the more I do it the more I realize

how hard it is to measure performance. There's wide disagreement among all

involved about how performance should be measured. Written exams are sure

not the answer; neither is field experience by itself. So I'll be the first

to confess that I've never figured out a way other than personal contact and

observation to evaluate somebody's performance. And, of course that's biased

from my perspective of what I want a good medic to be.

I guess we could develop a program where people would be designated

Inspectors and go around and observe every person applying for licensure

first hand until they were convinced one way or another that the person

either was entitled to it or not. A very expensive and long, drawn out

process. And who would police the Inspectors? Criteria would have to be

developed, but who would develop it, and through what process? It's easy to

see us all falling into a big vat of rancid hog-guts before the process was

over.

Here at TJC, when I first came here in 1989, we allowed people to apply for

credit in certain courses based on experience. For some reason that was

stopped. I suspect it arose from the difficulty of assessing " experience. "

Now, it has been decided, for better or for worse, that " education " will

count toward licensure. There are certain hoops that must be jumped through

to get an " education " . Courses passed will count; courses failed will not.

How do we adjust for inequities in grading and malicious faculty members who

unjustly fail people or corrupt faculty members who pass those who appeal to

them? {Just some of the ideas that surface in various discussion groups.}

Of course there are appeals processes, petitions, lawsuits and picketing,

but ultimately we have to give up and determine what standards we'll follow

and what we'll count.

That's what has been done. It ain't perfect, by a long shot. But it's what

emerged from the process.

Anybody can try to change it: thus HB2324. I happen to disagree with the

bill because I don't think having a paramedic certification plus " a college

course " which could be in finger painting, should entitle one to licensure.

But who knows for sure what should? Naw, I don't like it, but if it passes

I'll live with it until I can get it changed back.

After EMS Today and talking with lots of BigWigs in EMS mano-a-mano and

woman-o-a-mano I'm more convinced than ever that requiring more education is

not only to be desired but what's in fact going to happen.

Had a meeting today with the CEO of a MAJOR EMS provider who told me about

the prospects of HMO providers contracting with EMS organizations to provide

field evaluations of patients to determine who needs immediate transport, who

can use a cab voucher to go in to their doctor's office, who can get a

prescription for an anti-infective called in for them and be checked out

again in 12 hours, who needs a couple of stitches in the thumb, et cetera.

We discussed what will be needed in the way of additional education for the

medics who will be making those determinations.

The people supplying that service will have to have more education than a 90

day paramedic course and 10 years' experience.

So, it's not easy.

But it's an exciting time.

Gene Gandy

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