AMR's Private EMS School

[Scaramedic]

I've been bouncing around whether or not to post on this subject and since I am done with my homework tonite I thought what the hell.

For those of you who do not it AMR has its own EMS school, The National College of Technical Instruction.

NCTI

In my mind this brings up several issues and I was hoping to get some input from the City.

Is this a good thing for EMS as a whole. The idea that a large for profit private ambulance company is teaching future EMS professionals?

The Hamburger U approach, is it what we want in EMS?

Are they teaching their students to be Paramedics or to be AMR Paramedics?

Just in case you were wondering how many schools they have...

...does this not make them the largest Technical school teaching EMS in the U.S.? How many students can they punch out a year? I am thinking a lot, in the future will a large portion of EMS professionals be from these schools? What are the implications?

Does this post seem like a homework assignment? Damn, I've been in school too long.

I have nothing against these schools and I have no clue if they are good or bad. I am just curious what others feel about this.

Peace,

Marty

[flight-lp]

These "schools" are nothing more than the clinical training departments of the various branch offices. Most of their offerings are for the usual alphabet soup courses. Fortunately, Houston does not offer the Paramedic level. The EMT's and EMT-I's that I have seen come through the program have traditionally worked for AMR, usually because no one else would hire them. The program here is a joke to say the least. Both clinically and operationally. They have only retained one major transfer contract here and run ZERO 911. Hopefully it is better at other locations. If not I would be hesitant to remotely use the term "EMS professional" in any association with an AMR training program.

[Scaramedic]

Thanks Flight, thats the kind of response I was looking for. I am just trying to get an idea what these "schools" are about. They recently took over a school here in the Portland area and I am curious whether or not I should still recommend that school.

Peace,

Marty

[Just Plain Ruff]

I think it might not be that bad of an idea.

You get brand new medics out of school. You put them thru this type of cookbook school and it ensures that the medics get bad habits courtesy of AMR if they ever want to work somewhere else.

It's sort of like the "Do it our way" concept.

As a new medic you are completely pliable and if they can ply you into the medic that they want you to be with these training facilities then they ensure a sort of (pseudo) quality control. It ensures that every medic that they hire does it the AMR way and provides the ability for them to provide remedial training and whatever advanced training they want to provide.

Plus instead of sending the employees out to classes that cost an arm and a leg, AMR can save some money and have their employees who can teach those classes, teach them in house. Saves money, saves time and you kn ow, AMR has always been the one to spend the least amount of money out there.

[CBEMT]

Look at it this way: successful graduation from these schools clearly identify candidates that you shouldn't hire.

[DwayneEMTP]

Not only saves money, makes money!!

I went and talked to them in California when I lived there, though Dust and others convinced me to get a degree instead...

The gist is this...

$8,000 (if I remember right) for the 7 month didactic.

Prereq of A&P for healthcare professionals - 5 one hour classes over 5 weeks (Yes, I actually mean 5 hours total)

It seems like they had the same hospital and ambulance clinicals...Not sure, but assuming it's the same as my current school, 300 hospital, 500 preceptorship (Min), then an additional $1300, as clinicals were charged at $1/hr hospital and $2/hr ambulance.

They claim NR pass rates in the high 90s if I remember right.

One other thing...they wouldn't guarantee you a local preceptor. If you wanted a guarantee, you had to spend your preceptorship in Vegas, and were required to live there for all 4 phases...Some medics told me, though I was unable to verify it, that some people waited a year or more to begin their preceptorship locally. (When I asked about it at the interview they said "Oh, that's silly, we get people in as soon as possible, no one has ever waited that long" So I said, "So you'll guarantee in writing that I can begin my preceptorship within 6 months, and continue until finished" They said "well, we can't do that."

Some of their medics taught at the basic academy I went to...in fact that is part of what caused (notice I didn't say inspired) me to become a medic. I though "Christ, if these guys can do it, how hard can it be?"

I'm quite a bit more humble now....

[dpa]

good idea from amr smart to make money this way and to get new people to come in

[paraloco]

Acadian also has in-house classes, set up as the National EMS Academy.

[Dustdevil]

If the question is, "is this a good idea?" then I think the answer is very definitely 'yes.' There are a lot of potential positives to this idea.

However, I'm not so sure that any of these in-house programmes actually meet their potential. From what I have heard of Acadian's academy, they sure don't.

This is really the same question as "is private EMS a good idea?" Sure. The idea is great on almost every level. The problem is, it's rare that anybody actually does it right.

[baseflight]

Thanks Flight, thats the kind of response I was looking for. I am just trying to get an idea what these "schools" are about. They recently took over a school here in the Portland area and I am curious whether or not I should still recommend that school.

Peace,

Marty

Marty,

Did you recommend CES before the takeover? Grads from the former program have told me the change could only be an improvement!

I plan to test at NCTI's Roseville facility in December.

Cheers

base (NWRTC intern)