Re: Licensure

[Guest guest]

Mike (MCS) wrote:

While

fire departments and EMS services in rural areas may not like it, here's

how it really breaks down:Fighting

fires, in and of itself, does NOT require education much past junior high.

It requires physical strength, endurance, discipline and good instincts.

Officers need to have solid writing skills to document incidents as these

are legal documents.Being

in command of a fire

scene requires experience, and education helps when it comes to communication,

organization and team dynamics.ECA

and EMT-Basic, in and of themselves, require solid writing skills to document

patient contacts (or lack thereof). You have no other record other

than this, so understanding how to write competently is a must. Whether

or not this involves college is an arbitrary decision, and is better determined

by the education you received before deciding about college.EMT-Intermediate

and EMT-Paramedic require advanced knowledge of mathematics (the math itself

is high school level, but you've got to be familiar enough with it to do

it in your head), more concrete documentation skills (as there is more

to document) and significantly stronger A & P knowledge. I'm finding

that things I learned in my college-level (ONLY) biology courses are of

IMMENSE value to my understanding of my patient. Often, I can educate

non-collegiate field medics on the backgrounds of certain terms, conditions,

etc. that while they are used to TREATING, they are not knowledgable enough

to EVALUATE to a deep A & P level and be able to instinctively expect

certain physiological/pathophysiological reactions.Licensure,

while certainly prohibitive to rural services where there is a smaller

base of people to volunteer and a smaller base of people who have attended

college (as most collegiate level jobs are in metropolitan areas), may

have to accept the fact that intermediate-level care is the best they can

provide, OR, will have to have medical directors willing to train them

in skills and medications ABOVE AND BEYOND state criteria, taking on the

responsibility and liability themselves, and personally guaranteeing that

their staff can perform to their own protocol levels.My

$.02.Mike

-----Original

Message-----

From: & Zimmerman

Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 1999 14:02

To: Texas EMS ListServer

Subject: [texasems-L] Licensure

Hello all,

It seems to me that I am probably going to stir up some animosity here,

but is there anyone out there who thinks that licensure is a watered-down

attempt to appease the masses? I have heard arguments on this server

for both more pay and for complacency in seeking more pay, etc. for licensure.

I think that now is the time for all of us, as a profession to step up

and demand change first from ourselves, not our employers, public or private.

We cannot truly be seen as a profession like doctors, nurses, RT's etc.,

until we set our standards of training and education higher. For

example, require that there be college prerequisites such as English, math,

chemistry, and certain biology courses during EMT and before Paramedic

school. Perhaps make Paramedic an associate degree minimum like ADN

programs. As both a field medic and an instructor in a large program,

I am sometimes appalled at the education level of students and graduates

alike. I also realize that the fire service and the rural EMS communities

will not like this solution because of the cost factor. I would like

to hear any comments on this subject, and please realize that this is just

a suggestion, not an etched-in-stone belief. E.

Zimmerman, FF/LP

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