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What, can you repeat yourself, I'm having a very very hard time hearing you.

Well, respectfully, I beg to differ a little bit. The FTEP is both training AND evaluation, often (but not always) together as mentioned below. Like you we have an academy (Phase 1a), also for 2 weeks. Unlike what you describe we follow this with a training only phase. This "training only" phase (Phase 1b) is for (up to) six weeks. Bi weekly evals and updates to sups and FTEP/FTO coordinator. There are no daily evals (yet...we found it counter productive at this stage). During this time the trainee is a third rider until cleared as a second by the FTO. Focus is to continue the training and orientation (i.e. mapping, driving, etc) done in the academy with field exposure. We aded this phase after seeing too many new hires fall flat on their face early on. At first we lengthened the academy, but that didnt work. They neeeded a period of in the field orientation before we closed the lid on the pressure cooker. Then, like your agency, we have a minimum of three FTO's for "Phase 2". During this time training continues, but daily eval's also start. Additionally the bi weekly updates to the FTO/FTEP coordinator continue. During this phase 2 the trainee rides as a second with his FTO, he is not a third rider. IMHO, this is good because it turns up the presure to perform a bit. It takes away any "crutch" he may be using. At any time the traininee can be recycled to either (very short) training phase and a PIP if they demonstrate major issues. EMTs and seasoned medics typically go through 3 six-week FTO rotations before moving on. Brand new medics straight out of school we typically double that automatically. This means a brand new medic will typically be 6 months prior to going on to phase 3. Phase 3 is a 2 week evaluation only, sink or swim, pass or fail , final field test with an FTO they havent had yet. It is followed by a 1-2 hour sim man test with one of our med control docs, oral review, and a final exam . If they fail they can be recycled to phase II with a PIP. For phase 4 they are released into "General population". Phase 4 is simply monitoring of their charts and performance for the remainder of thair first year. So comparing our two programs, it seems part of your programs issues is confusion about the role of evaluation, when to do it, and what to do with trainees who are not meeting standards. I would also say that 10 shifts is probably not much time with an FTO, and perhaps (depending on what schedule you use) that should be pushed out quite a bit. Its worth noting that for EMT's (who are already employeed) in our system who get their medic cert go through the same process except they bypass the "training only phase" and go straight into phase II. it is assumed..unless noted otherwise by an FTO, that they should already be well oriented to our system. My response would be that sounds like a great idea, but from a legal and ethical point of view you should probably involve your training coordinator earlier. In otherwords, get an idea of the plan , put it on paper, talk it over with the TC PRIOR to hitting up the trainee. The reason you do this is to prevent any legal pitfalls you may unwittingly fall into , or even cause, despite your best efforts. The meeting with the TC is not a PIP, and therefore doesnt have to be a big deal, do it over coffee, breakfast, what ever. But if the trainee falls flat on his face or there is a critical failure while this training "plan" is in effect, you dont want left holding the bag in a wrongful termination suite.....or worse..a medical malpractice suite. Keeping the TC in the loop protects everyone. You know we went through the same thing about 5 years ago. It was tough on all of our FTO's because they were also taking paramedic students too. In the end we had to limit the paramedic and EMT students to "mentors" only just to give them a break. It worked out well. Now an FTO can take a medic student on his field internship , but only if he wants to. We still have about 12-15 FTO's... Like your agency, it is a lot of extra work. But its a lot of fun too. My only final bit of advice is this. Just because they are a good/nice/smart person and are smart doesnt mean they are a good EMT, and of course the opposite is true as well. The truth is we want/need people who are BOTH. There is a fine line betwen doing "everything you can" and dragging it out". Being an FTO isnt about personal relationships, though we often build them with our trainees (and that is OK). Being an FTO is about end user performance. No matter how good of a person they are, if they cannot perform in the field at 3am to standards....despite training...then they cannot..must not... pass. I have several friends who have failed the FTO process, they are still my friends. These are two seperate issues. Good luck.

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