Oral Boards

[JakeEMTP]

Before we can function at any level in our County, there is the dreaded oral boards. This entails a scope of practise ( skills check off ), then the interview with the Medical Director. In this second stage, the MD will give you a variety of scenarios as well as a medication exam slanted towards your level. When I did it for EMT-I it was difficult only because I wanted to use the paramedic scope. He cautioned my a few times that I can't do that as an Intermediate, but it was OK as a paramedic student lol. If he is comfortable with your responses, he will sign you off to function in your capacity.

Some of the people how went to boards with me got the dreaded, " I'm not to comfortable with your responses " speech and hence have to re-board. They seem to think he's not fair. I for one disagree. It is his medical license that we practise under and he has every right to say go or no go.

My question is this, is this common in other parts of the Country? I'm sure there is some sort of interview, but to what extent?

[Dustdevil]

Some of the people how went to boards with me got the dreaded, " I'm not to comfortable with your responses " speech and hence have to re-board. They seem to think he's not fair. I for one disagree. It is his medical license that we practise under and he has every right to say go or no go.

Absolutely! I am amazed that there are so many physicians who are even willing to extend their licence out to us at all! I sure wouldn't. Especially to persons I had never even personally met and evaluated.

My question is this, is this common in other parts of the Country? I'm sure there is some sort of interview, but to what extent?

Of course, my reply may not be particularly relevant, since I have only practised with one field EMS system in the last ten years. That was a rural, county-wide system with only about twenty-five medics total, including part-timers. But we were all personally interviewed by the medical director before being allowed to practise. It wasn't a particularly in-depth interview, as we had all been quite rigorously screened before hand. Nobody was hired there with less than about 7 years experience. But the MD did take an active role in establishing that each medic was somebody she had a comfortable level of confidence in. That was ten years ago, and it was not at all common at that time. I would sure hope it is something that is becoming more and more common.

[ccmedoc]

Yup. We have written, practical, and oral boards with all three med control officers present. They reserve the right to insert added material relevant to protocols. Re-evaluations every two years, practical checks and, if need be spot checks on suspect providers. We do online protocol tests once a year. These are open book, but the intent is to stay familiar with the protocols, not fail people. We are trying to set up skill checks once a year as opposed to two years. On the upside, some CEUs are handled with these. :wink:

[jwraider]

I did ER time with my medical director which I'm sure was an opportunity for him to evaluate me and others but it was nothing like an oral board.