RE: Another Interesting Bill

[Guest guest]

Hmm. Guess I phrased that last question incorrectly. You are right, it's

not about respect.

So, I retract and resubmit.

Shouldn't our testing be more in-line with the medical community who are

tested nationally.since we are medical?

From: texasems-l [mailto:texasems-l ] On

Behalf Of McNevin

Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 12:26 PM

To: texasems-l

Subject: RE: Another Interesting Bill

Respect is earned by your performance in the field and the working

relationship you develop with your peers, not by a test you take to enter

the profession. I took a state test in 1988 to become an EMT and did not

receive any respect just because I had a patch. I worked hard to be the best

EMT I could and over the years have worked beside and had an excellent

relationship with many Physicians and Nurses. I proved myself in the field

and earned their respect. As far as following suit and going through a

national testing process, I took the national Registry exam and passed it on

the first attempt just to see if I could. Did that make me a better EMT and

respected more by my peers? No. In all my years of serving in the field of

EMS, I have never had a Physician or Nurse ever ask to see my card or say "

Gee, your good. You must hold national registry certification. "

To: texasems-l

From: toni_crippen@...

Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:25:44 -0600

Subject: RE: Another Interesting Bill

I was thinking about this on my way home from shift this morning, and

something didn't quite sit right from what I read below. You are asking why

Texas doesn't have a STATE test for EMS and are comparing our testing to Law

and Fire. However, in my opinion, we are more closely aligned with

Physicians and Nurses which, both, have a national testing process.

Shouldn't we follow suit with the medical community to be more respected by

that same group?

Toni Crippen, LP

Pflugerville

From: texasems-l

[mailto:texasems-l ]

On

Behalf Of cfdc1

Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 2:16 PM

To: texasems-l

Subject: Another Interesting Bill

As I read all of these posts about this accreditation issue I can't help but

wonder, to be in Texas law enforcement you pass an approved course

consisting of an approved curriculum and pass a STATE TEST. To be in the

fire service in Texas you pass a course consisting of an ACCREDITED

CURRICULUM and pass a STATE TEST. Why then to be in the EMS profession in

Texas do you pass a course consisting of a national standard curriculum and

then have to take a test given by a bunch of outsiders? You can't tell me

that the DSHS can't develop and implement an evaluation process to test our

own students. We did it for years and it seemed to work fine. I received my

certification in 1988 and the course was harder than the exam. TECLOSE and

the TCFP have their own curriculums and evaluation processes for years and

they work just fine. They have never been asked to " outsource " their

evaluation process to save money. Maybe the DSHS should pay them a visit and

see how they do it.

Years ago when the legislature decided some cuts needed to be made who in

the DSHS thought that " outsourcing " our EMS testing was a good idea. It

doesn't seem to be such a good idea now does it? Especially when we have a

bunch of " outsiders " dictating to us what we are going to teach, how we will

teach it, and where they are going to allow us to teach it. The way I see it

is we have only two choices here. Either find a way to fund and take our

program back, provide oversight, and test our students ourselves or quit

whinning and move forward with the NR Accreditation process and just deal

with it. We placed ourselves in this position by relinquishing control of

the evaluation process in the first place.

In closing I just want to say that at the last Medical Director Committee

meeting Maxie Bishop hit the nail on the head when he stated " We are the

State of Texas. We should be leading not following " . We must ask ourselves

the question, " How's that outsourcing thing working out for us and are we

leading or being led? "