Paramedics are a vital component of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workforce and the United States health care system. The continued provision of high-quality care demands constantly improving education at accredited institutions. To date, only limited characteristics of paramedic education in the United States have been documented and studied in the literature. The objective of this study was to describe the educational infrastructure of accredited paramedic programs in the United States in 2018.

This is a retrospective, cross-sectional evaluation of the 2018 paramedic program annual report from The Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS Professions (CoAEMSP; Rowlett, Texas USA). The dataset includes detailed program metrics. Additionally, questions concerning program characteristics, demographics, and resources were asked as part of the evaluation. Resource availability was assessed via the Resource Assessment Matrix (RAM) with a benchmark of 80%. Included in the analysis are all paramedic programs with students enrolled. Descriptive statistics were calculated (median, [interquartile range/IQR]).

A total of 677 programs submitted data (100% response rate). Of these, 626 met inclusion criteria, totaling 17,422 students. Program annual enrollment varied greatly from one to 362 with most programs having small sizes (18 students [IQR 12-30]). Program duration was 12 months [IQR 12-16] with total hours of instruction being approximately 1,174 [IQR 1069-1304], 19% of which were dedicated to clinical experience. Full-time faculty sizes were small (two faculty members [IQR 1-3]) with most programs (80%) having annual operating budgets below USD$500,000. For programs with an annual budget below USD$100,000 (34% of programs), annual enrollment was approximately 14 students [IQR 9-21]. Degrees conferred by programs included certificates (90%), associate degrees (55%), and bachelor’s degree (2%). Simulation access was assessed with nearly all (100%) programs reporting simple task trainers and 84% of programs investing in advanced simulation manikins. Seventy-eight percent of programs met the RAM benchmark.

Most paramedic educational programs in the United States have small annual enrollments with low numbers of dedicated faculty and confer certificates and associate degrees. Nearly one-quarter of paramedic educational programs are not adequately resourced. This study is limited by self-reported data to the national accreditation agency. Future work is needed to identify program characteristics that are associated with high performance.

Cricothyrotomy and chest needle decompression (NDC) have a high failure and complication rate. This article sought to determine whether paramedics can correctly identify the anatomical landmarks for cricothyrotomy and chest NDC.

A prospective study using human models was performed. Paramedics were partnered and requested to identify the location for cricothyrotomy and chest NDC (both mid-clavicular and anterior axillary sites) on each other. A board-certified or board-eligible emergency medicine physician timed the process and confirmed location accuracy. All data were collected de-identified. Descriptive analysis was performed on continuous data; chi-square was used for categorical data.

A total of 69 participants were recruited, with one excluded for incomplete data. The paramedics had a range of six to 38 (median 14) years of experience. There were 28 medical training officers (MTOs) and 41 field paramedics. Cricothyroidotomy location was correctly identified in 56 of 68 participants with a time to identification range of 2.0 to 38.2 (median 8.6) seconds. Chest NDC (mid-clavicular) location was correctly identified in 54 of 68 participants with a time to identification range of 3.4 to 25.0 (median 9.5) seconds. Chest NDC (anterior axillary) location was correctly identified in 43 of 68 participants with a time to identification range of 1.9 to 37.9 (median 9.6) seconds. Chi-square (2-tail) showed no difference between MTO and field paramedic in cricothyroidotomy site (P = .62), mid-clavicular chest NDC site (P = .21), or anterior axillary chest NDC site (P = .11). There was no difference in time to identification for any procedure between MTO and field paramedic.

Both MTOs and field paramedics were quick in identifying correct placement of cricothyroidotomy and chest NDC location sites. While time to identification was clinically acceptable, there was also a significant proportion that did not identify the correct landmarks.

Traditionally, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) educators have divided the pediatric population into age groups to assist in targeting their clinical and didactic curriculum. Currently, the accrediting body for paramedic training programs requires student exposure to pediatric patients based entirely on age without specifying exposure to specific pathologies within each age stratification. Identifying which pathologies are most common within the different pediatric age groups would allow educators to design curriculum targeting the most prevalent pathologies in each age group and incorporating the physiologic and psychological developmental milestones commonly seen at that age.

It was hypothesized that there are unique clusterings of pathologies, represented by paramedic student primary impressions, that are found in different age groups which can be used to target provider education.

This is a retrospective review of prospectively collected data documented by paramedic students in the Fisdap (Field Internship Student Data Acquisition Project; Saint Paul, Minnesota USA) database over a one-year period. For the purposes of this study, pediatric patients were defined arbitrarily as those between the ages of 0-16 years. All paramedic student primary impressions recorded in Fisdap for patients aged 0-16 years were abstracted. Primary impression by age was calculated and graphed. The frequency of primary impression was then assessed for significance of trend by age with an alpha ≤.05 considered significant.

The following primary impressions showed clinically and statistically significant variability in prevalence among different pediatric age groups: respiratory distress, medical-other, abdominal pain, seizure, overdose/poisoning, behavioral, and cardiac. In patients less than 13 years old, respiratory and other-medical were the most common two primary impressions and both decreased with age. In patients 5-16 years old, the prevalence of abdominal pain and behavioral/psych increased. Bimodal distributions for overdose were seen with one spike in the toddler and another in the adolescent population. Seizures were most common in the age group associated with febrile seizure. Sepsis was seen most often in the youngest patients and its prevalence decreased with age.

There are statistically significant variations in the frequency of paramedic student primary impressions as a function of age in the pediatric population. Emphasizing paramedic student exposure to the most common pathologies encountered in each age group, in the context of the psychological and physiological milestones of each age, may improve paramedic student pediatric practice.

ErnestEV , BrazeltonTB , CarhartED , StudnekJR , TrittPL , PhilipGA , BurnettAM .Prevalence of Unique Pediatric Pathologies Encountered by Paramedic Students Across Age Groups. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016; 31(4):386–391.