Loading ...
In Massachusetts, more than 200 EMTs (just know that the press has no idea that EMTs and paramedics are different) were found to have lied about attending refresher courses.
If we look at the all-encompassing term EMT, then continuing education requirements are typically 24-48 hours every 2 years. Are these people that lazy that they couldn’t suck it up and physically go to a few classes?
I really like outside topical classes put on by subject matter experts, but I hate refresher classes. But to lie about attendance? Who really thinks no one will find out?
Yes, our typical ACLS, PALS, ITLS classes are really lame, made even stupider by the fact that most are taught by people who have no field experience or simply no idea what they’re talking about. Some of them are really Ricky Rescues who are dying to talk down to you to show you how much they know (or, usually, don’t know). Some of them are plain wrong. Many of them are annoying. But that’s our little game that we have to play; everyone suffers through these classes, one hour at a time, counting the never-ending minutes with time seemingly standing still.
I know you do not care, but I know of two people who did that very thing (lie and fake) in Arizona. I turned them into DHS when I found out. I don’t like lying bastards. Makes the rest of us look bad.
You are absolutely right about the ACLS folks. I am always amazed when they are allowed to teach when they have never had to do it for real in the field. Yet somehow they are better than us-go figure.
i can’t say i wouldn’t do the same. i don’t like people or actions that make us look bad, and there are many of both.
Well as somebody who works in two orthogonal fields–software engineering is my day job–these sorts of people are everywhere. Granted it is just a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things when your programmer misrepresents themselves and fakes training…
Pingback: What you should be reading. « Rescue Monkey
Re: your parenthetical that “EMTs and paramedics are different,” remember that both NREMT and NAEMT call that high level “EMT-Paramedic.” So, yes, they ARE different: Paramedic is a subset of EMT (as opposed to some who think EMT is a subhuman form of paramedic).