EMS World

JUN 2015

EMS World Magazine is the most authoritative source in the world for clinical and educational material designed to improve the delivery of prehospital emergency medical care.

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in EMS CE accreditation, particularly where innovation is driving evolution in continu- ing education. New CE Models Virtual instructor lead training (VILT) VILT is a new distributed learning tech- nology that allows an instructor to pres- ent information by means of a lecture when students are only present in a virtual class- room. Students log in to the classroom and are able to view and hear the presentation. They interact with the instructor either by voice and webcam video or by typing ques - tions in a fashion similar to a chat room. All pieces of the activity occur simultaneously. Students are typically assigned textbook chapter reading before the event. At the end of the session, the students are given a unique code that grants them access to a post-test. Video-based training with supporting documents This is a DL format in which the students watch video narration and case presenta- tions. They are given supplemental reading and creative handouts to complete. After each step in the process, they are allowed to take a post-test for CE credit. Integrated testing Integrated testing ensures students com- plete the content requirements by writing the post-test into the content. In other words, a student progresses through an interactive video training program. At key points in the video the student is given a question or short series of questions that must be completed before the student may progress to the next section. Failure to cor- rectly respond to the questions returns the student to the relevant section in the video so the content can be reviewed. The ques- tion is then presented again. This is a great way to ensure student participation. Virtual graphics training with integrated testing In this case, the DL provider offers a smart - phone/tablet application that allows the student to interact with the presentation and practice skills. The student uses his/ her fingers to interact in a case scenario that may require them to move equipment, prepare equipment, prepare a patient for a procedure, perform a procedure and evalu- ate a patient before and after each proce- dure is completed. This format also provides integrated testing such that each question reinforces the procedure or skill the student is practicing. This educational format is very expensive and difficult to prepare, but the interactive nature of the presentation is portable and dynamic for the student. The area of virtual graphics training has great potential in the near future as technology advances and edu- cators are able to integrate more sensitivity and complexity into the software. Best Practices of CECBEMS- Accredited Applications The involvement of a qualified medical doctor (MD) is integral to the success of any EMS education program. CECBEMS requires that an MD sit on the program committee and expects that the MD will review each and every activity before the CECBEMS application is complete and before it is made available to the EMS com- munity. The MD must ensure accuracy and relevance of each activity delivered. Aggregate needs assessments can be car- ried out that review the nature and breadth of an EMS service or EMS service area to determine the educational needs of a large group of EMS providers. Needs assessments EMSWORLD.com | JUNE 2015 29 Accreditation Delivery CECBEMS, by its charter, maintains the standards for the delivery of EMS CE. Those standards include require- ments for active medical direction, valid post-tests, quality infrastructure, sound educational design including delivery methodology, marketing, fees, evalua- tion, student record-keeping and data reporting. CECBEMS accreditation exists so that EMS providers have access to high- quality standard-driven continuing edu- cation activities and are awarded credit for participating in such activities. One of the greatest challenges of delivery of CECBEMS accreditation is ensuring that CE providers accurately report the names, certification numbers, certifica- tion state, activity numbers and CEH hours earned by subscribers (EMS pro- viders). It is of the utmost importance that CE providers accurately report data to the CECBEMS data manage- ment center so each and every EMS provider gets credit for the CE they complete. CECBEMS depends on the quality of the data it receives. EMTs and paramedics depend on CECBEMS to provide accredited programs that are less likely to be subject to audit by the National Registry of EMTs or individual state EMS offices. Much work is being done to make the assignment of CEH objective and accurate but the subjectivity variable will always be present to some degree. CECBEMS expects that all continuing education content is: • Relevant for the intended audience; • Medically accurate; • Properly referenced; • Original work that is correctly cited; • Grammatically correct with accurate spelling; • Not misleading. CECBEMS also requires the following: • Providers will cite and reference recent peer-reviewed journals as much as possible; • Content areas cannot be skipped and post-tests cannot be completed until the content has been viewed; • CE hours will be correctly applied. For example, a provider will not award 2 CEH for a 20-minute activity; • Student activities and interactions will be recorded, tracked, analyzed and reported to the CECBEMS data man- agement system; • Students will be required to evaluate the program on completion of the lesson; • The program committee will analyze the evaluations to make decisions on how they need to improve their activities; • Needs assessments are performed and their results are applied to future educational content.

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