Professional Identity Formation

You all had very good justifications of which component of the PIF you felt was the biggest obstacle for our profession:

The five components that define a profession:

Expert knowledge and skills

Ethical behavior; exhibits integrity

Altruistic; benefits others

Licensed and accountable

Self-regulating – individually and as a group

There's no right answer of course because we all have different perspectives but since this is a course looking at educational issues in EMS, you can see the importance of how our professional identity begins in EMT/PM initial education courses. This only further demonstrates the importance of education and training on each student as they begin their journey of development. My hope is that paramedic professional identity will continue to be seen as an important part of healthcare quality. Who knows where we will be 25 years from now?

Should EMS require a degree as entry level?

The issue of requiring a degree as the entry level for paramedics is a hot topic on the national stage. 

There are reasonable opinions on why we should NOT require an AAS degree as entry level. The IAFF opposes this because of the costs associated with municipal fire departments for earning the degree. But is this short-sided?

Like it or not, you will be seen as an expert on this question because you're working on a degree and also, you are considered ambassadors for the value of earning a degree in EMS.

Thank you for sharing your comments on this topic. 

Example of a Performance Measure

Use of Lights and Sirens as a quality measure for safety in EMS. 

There are strong guidelines and published studies that support the limited use of lights and sirens to protect not only the public but also EMS providers and patients from potential danger, as a consequence of lights and sirens use.

According to NEMSQA, higher scores indicate better quality so this is the performance measurement:

Numerator: Calls where lights and sirens were not used.

Denominator: The total number of EMS responses/transports originating from a 911 request.

Should you check blood glucose on seizure patients?

Many of you included a blood glucose check on the seizure patient as a performance measure. This is actually a point of debate nationally. 

The current National EMS Clinical Guidelines recommend you check glucose IF the patient is still actively seizing and only after anticonvulsants. 

Here are the 4 performance measures that the National Guideline has for seizures:

1) Frequency of performing glucometry

2) Time to administration of anticonvulsant meds

3) Rate of respiratory failure

4) Rate of seizure recurrence

Week 11: Crew Resource Mgmt and Professional Identity Formation

We continue with a final look at QI/QA in EMS and Crew Resource Management.

One of the video lessons for this week is on Professional Identity Formation. Originally I was reluctant to bring in this topic not because it’s not important but it is a deep subject that could be brought up earlier in the course. However, last year I was surprised to have so many positive comments about this subject from the class that at least this year I am leaving it in. I’ll wait to hear your comments about the possibility of adding it earlier in the course.

7 signs your agency's QA program is a dysfunctional mess

Here's a short article on EMS QA. This is just FYI and not required reading.

7 signs your agency's QA program is a dysfunctional mess.

Mon Jul 14-20

We are continuing to look at Continuing Education issues from the Training Coordinator perspective.

This week will end Module 3 and the Module Organizer is due on Sun.

The readings this week are focused on the culture of safety and will serve as a transition point for our next module and discussions of quality improvement/assurance. There is a close link between CE and QA/QI that I hope you

There’s a very important video within Video Lecture 03.03 that presents a national initiative called Do It For Drew. Very powerful! I’m excited to read your thoughts on this tragic case and I hope you can share this with your service and co-workers in some way.