Learning vs. Certification

[Ridryder 911]

Charles, Did you try to teach any new things on running a code to spark interest..kinda like getting motivated for CPR retraining for the 15'th time...ho hmmm. How hard is running a code...shock, shock, shock, med tube, shock med, repeat.. I get tickled of probies thinking a code is tough. Running a code is one of the easiest things.. they can't get worse...there is no past tense of dead. Keeping from coding & keeping them alive after the code is the tough job. Just a thought....from an "old medic"

Let us remember this why AHA went to NO INTIMIDATION training & stripped the CERTIFICATION away.

I suggest those who think the basic ACLS course was demanding attend the ACLS for experienced providers...

[ardolphin26]

While people do need to learn I think that it can be more general when re-certifying. Although I'm not ACLS or anything I just think that it's necessary to review in depth but not necessarily relearn everything. Of course I'm not speaking from experience it's just how I feel about recerting various certs.

I am sorry but I don't agree with this. I am a EMT-P and you are telling me that if I re-cert and don't learn the new criteria that are put forth that I will be able to work your family member and you feel safe with that. Not me. I want the person working on my family to know what the hell they are doing. a re-cert is just as important to me as learning it for the first time.

[canuckEMT]

This is a direct correlation to some other discussions on here about the reputation and professionalism issue. If we are going to be taken as serious medical people then we need to make even recert courses a little tougher to make members and field pratitioners keep up on thier skills.

It is too easy right now to know that " hey, recerts are coming up and we get a card just cause we showed up." It should be the same as when you write your state or provincial exams, if you don't know your stuff, you don't pass.

[AZCEP]

For what it is worth, the "kinder, gentler ACLS" is for all involved a huge disappointment. Those of us that have been around for a while can remember walking into an ACLS class not sure if we would leave with a card.

Now it has become, sit through 2 days of class, give an inkling of desire to do something right and you expect to get a card.

In teaching ACLS the last 4 years, many students ask me to sign them off without them providing understanding of the guidelines. While it makes it very easy to trip these people up on simple concepts, the expectation is still there.

My medic students do not get a card if they are using the reference materials that the Dr's and nurses are allowed to use. There definitely is a difference in the amount of information that prehospital and hospital providers carry with them.

Hopefully, I'm not alone in noticing this difference. Even with the advent of the ACLS-EP class, the hospital folks want to look treatment options up in a reference book, and medics tend to treat with what is available to them.

[Ridryder 911]

Actually, AZCEP I just attended a "roll-out" for ACLS instructors. AHA wants to emphasize...looking up med dosages is recommended. They now feel having references will defer from med errors. and following algorithm more accurately.

I agree this is a harsh difference form the "old days" of having to know the material... it is a shame we have allowed standards to become so watered down...

Be safe,

Ridryder 911

[AZCEP]

Rid,

I can agree with looking up the info when there are resources available to do it, but when the limitations of the prehospital environment are factored in, I don't think it works real well.

On the plus side, most prehospital providers don't have as many options as in the hospital. That by itself should make things easier to remember. The greatest difficulty that most have is being able to recall the information in a stressful environment of a code.