Bryan Bledsoe doesn't mince words. His articles and presentations on CISD and air medical issues certainly didn't gain him any friends. His column in this month's JEMS will strike a similar chord with some EMS programs and systems.
I posted on this last month in my report from the EMS Education Standards Stakeholder's Meeting. I was surprised more people didn't balk at the requirement for accreditation of paramedic programs. My belief was that stakeholders didn't bring it up at the meeting because they planned on fighting it by other means.
While painful for some systems and a serious reality check for others, it is good for EMS and we did get 5 years advance notice.
Read Bryan's column. As usual, whether you agree or not, it is well written and brings up interesting points.
There is one other thing that is good business and drives us closer to being a profession: intelligent, reasonable, public discussion. Make your "robust yet succinct" comments (as we learned at the stakeholder's meeting) constructively and in a proper forum.
This is another way we become a profession.
Be sure to check out Bryan's unique EMStock EMS conference.
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While many EMS systems, especially those in Maine, will have trouble adopting the new standards, I feel it is definitely for the better. The only problem that I forsee with accrediting institutions is that EMS will not become a career, rather than a hobby. While I have no statistics, I would say that half the country is already career, and the other half is volunteer.
This, unfortunately, I feel, may eliminate the volunteers because it raises the standard so high that those weekend warriors won't be able to take two+ years out of their lives to go back to school.
For the profession, however, this is great. We need a standard, and academia can support our cause. Colleges have a lot of resources and can make paramedicine programs much more intuitive, challenging, and rewarding. In the technology alone, holding EMS classes at a college rather than in the training room at a fire station, students should benefit.
Overall, I would say that this is is a good initiative, but will definitely change the way EMS is delivered in the United States. I wonder if states will drop the NREMT certs and go on their own....
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