Your CoAEMSP January Update

JANUARY / IN THIS ISSUE

ACCREDITCON Registration Opens on February 1.
Register Now for the March Fundamentals of Accreditation Workshop
Surveys Now Available with Google Forms and SurveyMonkey
What is New on CoAEMSP.org

Preceptor Orientation and Training
Field Experience and Capstone Field Internship: Is there a difference?
Into The Unknown: The Paramedic's Journey
Number of Paramedic Programs
Milestones

ACCREDITCON registration opens on February 1

CAAHEP Accreditation Workshop Rebranded!

Fundamentals of Accreditation Workshop for the EMS Professions, presented by CoAEMSP

Registration is Now Open for the March Workshop!

New Year, New Name!

The same great content, just a new name. Fundamentals of Accreditation Workshop for the EMS Professions, presented by CoAEMSP became effective November 1, 2022 (formerly known as the CAAHEP Accreditation Workshop).

The Fundamentals of Accreditation Workshop educates participants on the 2015 CAAHEP Standards & Guidelines, the accreditation process, the self-study report, and best practices to avoid common stumbling blocks. The workshop uses expert presentations and interactive group learning activities to enhance the accreditation knowledge of Paramedic program faculty.

March 8-9, 2023 – Virtual

10:00 AM to 2:30 PM Central Time each day

Get more information, including additional 2023 dates

Surveys Now Available with Google Forms and SurveyMonkey

Surveys are available via Google Forms! The following surveys are available via SurveyMonkey, and now you can use the Google form!

Resource Library > Instruments & Forms > Google Form Links

Survey – Employer

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Survey – Graduate

Resource Library > Resource Assessment > Google Form Links

Program Resource Survey – Program Personnel

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Program Resource Survey – Students

SurveyMonkey: If you have a paid SurveyMonkey account, the CoAEMSP can provide the following surveys to you free of charge. Email Kathryn (kathryn@coaemsp.org) with the username of the paid SurveyMonkey account, and she will copy the surveys into that account.

PDF versions of the four surveys are also available in the Resource Library.

What is New on CoAEMSP.org?

The following documents are either new or have been revised and are available in the Resource Library.

Program Review and Analysis

Resource Library > Instruments & Forms > Program Review and Analysis

Evaluation includes a variety of tools administered at specific points throughout the program. Guidelines for administration, analysis, and implementation are identified. See http://coaemsp.org/Evaluations.htm for the tools to assist programs with conducting evaluations.

Accreditation Process Cycle and Accreditation Process List

Resource Library > Policies & Procedures > Accreditation Process Cycle or Accreditation Process List

The visuals to show the accreditation process have been updated to include the additional steps to the Letter of Review, including the preliminary site visit.

Action Plan for Unanticipated Program Interruption

Resource Library > Instruments & Forms > Action Plan for Unanticipated Program Interruption

The past three years have highlighted the need to have a plan in place when significant events cause disruption in the ability of a program to operate normally. The event could be a natural disaster, public health emergency, power failure, failure of information technology services, or another unanticipated event. During the pandemic, some programs who lost the ability to be on their campus location found that they did not have the ability to access program and student records, and struggled to find a path for students to continue the education process.

No plan can cover all potential events and challenges, but programs should have a general strategy to be able to continue to function, albeit at a limited capacity, for a period. In the event of severe disruption, the program may need to temporarily cease operation, and there are attendant activities and notifications that must occur.

The new Action Plan for Unanticipated Program Interruption provides an outline of considerations and a tool to document the program's actions. We hope you never need to implement it, but preparedness can save you time, energy, and stress if an event occurs.

Preceptor Orientation and Training

Orientation for student clinical and field experience rotations refers to a high-level overview of student oversight and evaluation and is required only for the liaison or key contact at each clinical and EMS field agency where students are assigned.

Training for the capstone field internship provides more in-depth information on coaching, monitoring the attainment of competencies, evaluating student performance, and shaping professional behavior.

Field Experience and Capstone Field Internship: Is there a difference?

In the traditional structure of a Paramedic educational program, there were basically four components: didactic, lab, clinical experiences, and field internship. As the concept of formative experiences and progression of competency evolved, the field internship portion of the program developed into field experience and capstone field internship.

Paramedic educational program structure can be varied, based on state or local regulations or tradition, and designated field hours may begin early in the course sequencing and continue through the program, or field hours with an EMS agency may begin following all didactic, lab, and clinical hours. While structure and sequencing vary, according to the most recent Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP) Annual Report, the average number of total clock hours for a Paramedic program is 1212 hours.

Into The Unknown: The Paramedics' Journey

CoAEMSP is proud to be one of 19 sponsors of the documentary, Into The Unknown: The Paramedics' Journey. Watch this 90-second trailer.

Whatever Paramedics encounter on their calls, invariably, those memories are taken home with them. As the saying goes, “You can’t un-see what you’ve seen” How do you compartmentalize those thoughts? Where do you store those memories? This is what Paramedics face 24/7 – 365, and it takes a toll on them. They face personal injury, hazardous work environments, mental health issues, assaultive behavior, communicable diseases, and now a worldwide pandemic.

We will ride along with a select few with diverse backgrounds and learn the answers to those questions. How do the pathos and poignancy they observe daily affect them? Can the chaos they experience elbow its way into the intimacy of their home life? We will experience where they are and what they do today… and we will imagine where they will be in the future. But most importantly, we will discover what motivates these heroic men and women to risk it all and step out into the unknown.

Watch the trailer.

For a current list of CoAEMSP LoR and CAAHEP Accredited programs, visit www.caahep.org.

Milestones

Jeffrey Bonavita, MPA, NRP, Program Director with the Paramedic Program sponsored by Virginia Peninsula Community College, earned the Master of Public Administration degree from Old Dominion University.

Steven Rhea, MA, EMTP, a Lead Instructor with the Paramedic Program sponsored by Dorsey College, earned the Master of Arts from Siena Heights University.