Recertification exam

[jobberman]

Has anyone taken the new computer recertification exam for basics? the test where if you pass, you dont have to take refreshers or ceu's is the one i am talking about.

[Chief1C]

Wouldn't it be better, education wise, to attend several different courses for con-ed? I love con-ed, taking new courses, or classes we've never had before. Each state should have a list of a hundred or more courses. Often, covering stuff we already know, but you know a few providers in the classroom will have absorbed a piece of information they had forgotten.

[jobberman]

con ed is great in most states, but when you are very very limited in your scope of practice in a state, classes are very, how to say, mundane. within our company, all con ed are on the medic level as well as the classes the state gives. I'd rather go through a test and knock it out, than go to class's in which nothing is accomplished. if i were in another state that allowed basics to do more, i would be con eding out the wazoo, but since i have no plans to relocated anytime in the next 30 years, the test will be my first option.

[Eydawn]

I'm all for going to continuing education... but the way it's set up here in Colorado is kind of screwy! For example... I took the refresher course this semseter. It's something like 54 CEU's. To recertify at the National level, you need 70 CEU's. Unfortunately, my employer doesn't pay for my EMT CEU's, just requires me to go to 40 million other trainings... even though I use my EMT skills while caring for my clients. Great! I'm short nearly 20 CEU's.

So I could pay to go to a conference and pick up the remaining credits, or I could subscribe to JEMS and use their CEU program... or I could challenge the NREMT exam and recertify my national that way. Then once I've recertified the NREMT, I provide documentation of that to Colorado EMS and lo and behold, they renew my Colorado EMT-B as well. Seems like a much more feasible option to me.

Not knocking continuing education or my refresher class, but they're so minimalistic at the EMT-B level that it's pathetic. It's "the bare bones needed" all over again. There were a lot of topics in my refresher class that were skimmed over, or places where a good more in depth dialogue started and we had to move on to "hit the next topic." It's *not* continuing education! It's re-training. Let's be honest.

I was frustrated in that class (as my innumerable text messages to a paramedic friend will attest) and felt like I learned more by zoning out and trying to puzzle out some physiology concepts in my head. It's good to have your skills re-covered. But don't tell me it's education if it is a lower level review than my original class was... I didn't learn anything new, except that Northern Colorado apparently doesn't treat flail chest in the field (????). Don't get me wrong- I needed the review of Colorado protocols... but my ability as a medical provider and my critical thinking skills were not challenged in this refresher class.

Due to financial constraints and the lack of availability of good con-ed (to me personally, not in my state) I am challenging the NREMT-B test. Probably on December 21st. I'll let you know how it goes!

Wendy

CO EMT-B