PHTLS in civilian paramedic class

[boeingb13]

I recently took a phtls class as part of our paramedic curriculum. Before starting the class our teacher tells us "you have to take this class to pass paramedic, but alot of it is going to go against what we've been teaching you". He said it was do to phtls being a military based course. At the end of the 2 day class we were told to forget alot of what we learned, as in all the torniquet uses.

Why is this class a part of civilian paramedic training if it contradicts what your paramedic course books teach?

[chbare]

Hu? :? PHTLS has a section that covers military medicine; however, the course is based on a standard curriculum.

Take care,

chbare.

[Dustdevil]

Exactly. In fact, there is a completely different PHTLS textbook for use in military classes. PHTLS was developed by the NAEMT, and only later adopted by the military after some of the developing faculty became involved in tactical medicine.

Are you sure this is exactly how it was explained to you, or is it possible you misunderstood?

PHTLS reflects the state-of-the-art in field trauma care, and is constantly re-evaluated for updates. Of course, things change rapidly in medicine, so there are occasionally going to be some discrepancies between what the book says and what current practice is. But if there are significant differences between what PHTLS says and what your instructors say, there is a big problem there.

[boeingb13]

I wish I could get some of the people in my class to join, they would tell you exactly what I did. The teacher told us that, ran through the power points, and a few practicals, and that was about it.

[AnthonyM83]

Maybe he was using that as an excuse for why your paramedic class or the area you work in isn't as up to date with trauma care as it should be. As a way to justify not teaching that stuff in the rest of the curriculum? Just a thought.

But like Dust said, PHTLS is meant for civilian paramedics. There's a separate book for military medics...Maybe for some reason he was teaching you the military version...?

[Dustdevil]

I wish I could get some of the people in my class to join, they would tell you exactly what I did. The teacher told us that, ran through the power points, and a few practicals, and that was about it.

Yeah, that is probably the biggest problem that I and other instructors have with PHTLS. When they developed the course in the early 1980s, there was a significant group that wanted to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator by putting nothing but key verbal points on the slides (before the invention of PowerPoint), so instructors could just burn through the slides like any other merit badge course, and give away the card like they do in ACLS and other merit badge courses. There were several of us -- including RidRyder and myself -- who opposed that concept, preferring instead to present more reinforcing graphics, and allow for more discussion, resulting in better understanding of the concepts and better retention. You can see who won that battle. Consequently, most PHTLS courses I see these days are nothing but a string of boring instructor wannabe's reading through the slides, which is really sad, considering all the great information that is in that book.

[chbare]

Hmmm, today must be the day of stupid instructors? (See the SALI thread.) No offense AZCEP.

Take care,

chare.

[Dustdevil]

Maybe he was using that as an excuse for why your paramedic class or the area you work in isn't as up to date with trauma care as it should be. As a way to justify not teaching that stuff in the rest of the curriculum? Just a thought.

That's quite probably what's going on. I don't know about Floridia, but there are more than a couple of states who haven't updated their EMS standards in way too long. Consequently, their test questions will conflict with the modern EMS world. If Floridia hasn't bothered to come to grips with the modern realities of tourniquet use -- and if your instructors don't know anything other than what they've always been told in Floridia -- then yeah, that could result ins conflict. That certainly wouldn't be the fault of PHTLS though.

[AZCEP]

Hmmm, today must be the day of stupid instructors? (See the SALI thread.) No offense AZCEP.

Why would I take offense from an RN/EMT-I.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons I don't participate in education nearly as much as I would like to anymore. The students come in thinking they will leave with a course completion card without proving they understand the material. Between the LCD regulation and the inability of students to want to work, "no student left behind" has created an untenable situation trying to educate these people.

[chbare]

Why would I take offense from an RN/EMT-I.

Take care,

chbare.