Educators

Can an online resource replace you? NO — plain and simple. The real question is:

If students came to class knowing the ‘book-knowledge’, lectures could focus on ‘problem areas’. Customize your lessons and tailor them to meet the individual needs of your students. How can you maximize class time?

• Case Studies: Hand one to each student. Encourage them to circle unknown words, underline important phrases, hypothesize a differential diagnosis, and recommended treatment. Explain that they will be presenting their findings to a group — creates peer accountability. Turn it into a group project. This fosters collaboration and team work mentality focused on patient care.
• Build relevance: Research the day and life of a patient with a specific illness/injury. Dig deeper in daily/weekly management, clinical outcome, etc.
• Invite Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to speak in-person or via conference call.
• The difference between ‘cookbook medicine’ and proper patient care. The importance of a good patient assessment and making the right differential diagnosis.
• Research that leads Evidence-Based Medicine. Start with learning how to assess the quality of the data (research papers vs. blog posts/Wikipedia/social media). Then compare and contrast related articles to find best practices and ‘up-to-date’ materials.
• Guided practice of single skill. Starting from a checklist and plenty of time, ideal lighting, etc. to a more realistic scenario with prioritization of multiple skills. (Students write their own scenarios in small groups then run other squads through it.)
• Allow students to make mistakes (in the class/lab) — as long as they learn from them. Promote a Growth Mindset = let them see the outcomes in a safe environment so they don’t make the same ones in real-life.
• Develop critical-thinking skills. Elevate discussions to those higher-order answers.
• ‘Soft skills’. Communication under stress, ethical/moral preferences vs. professionalism. Dealing with difficult patients/family members/partners.

Mentor each of your students to be competent and confident entry-level ‘street ready’ providers.

Here is a plan to break down of an EMT class (without any training).

PLACE PDF OF 15-WEEK EMT CLASS FROM DAY 1 HERE.

For the video:

The major hurdle for most students is the Cognitive Domain (AKA ‘book-knowledge’). There are two problems:

1. Students don’t read the textbook.
2. The textbooks (and it’s power points) are formatted for content — not the learning process.

The Solution: Ditch the textbook. MyEMSEducation restructured the educational standards into levels that are tailored for classroom activities. Early material creates foundational knowledge that grows in complexity as the student progresses through the courses. Students learn online BEFORE class. They have to be prepared so they can deliberately practice the ‘hands-on’ application.

Instead of hours of power points, think about the opportunities that you could have: (For example, EMT Respiratory Emergencies)

1. Only a small fraction of the previous ‘1-hour lecture’ (20-minute) reviewing the topic. Clarify “problem areas” for deeper levels of understanding and better retention. Explain differences in local/State protocols vs. NREMT/education standards.
2. Ask “Why are lung sounds important?” Have them draw a picture of the respiratory systems and identify key structures related to the lung sounds. Appropriate medication/treatment options. Why/How does it work? Will it work for other types of COPD?
3. Case studies for small groups. Each group has a different illness/injury that they need to identify (differential diagnosis), based on presentation.
4. Each group will get the equipment and/or medication for hands-on skills. Emphasize why these skills/meds are important — What is wrong with the patient? How do these skills help?
5. Each group runs the other groups through their case study in a realistic scenario mock up. (In time, the students will be writing their own scenarios and/or oral stations.)
6. Each group creates an IOOH scenarios with management check sheet. You can lead 2-3 of these case studies as ‘softball’ scenarios (asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, hyperventilation, etc.). As they learn the pattern, the students will write their own scenarios and/or oral stations while incorporating layers of complexity (age, history/medication, and s/s).

Integrated Out-Of-Hospital (IOOH) scenarios and Oral Stations should be implemented as early as possible. These stations develop the ‘street-smarts’ of the student. They can be tailored to strengthen both:

• Objective ‘hands-on’ tasks. Applying O2 within 90 seconds of patient contact, identifying the correct lung sounds, or getting a good history, and call-in and/or patient hand-off. Homework: documentation and write a run ticket.

• Affective development. Patient/family interaction, crew resource management (leadership skills and appropriate delegation of tasks), adjusting for barriers (language, ethical considerations, special accommodations). Homework: emotional reflection piece.

Timely feedback is crucial in student development, promoting positive habits (and erasing poor ones). Everyday in the classroom you can guide them through the learning process and coach them to ‘job-ready’.

EMS is a dynamic work environment so you should create a curriculum that prepares your students for their future career. It does NOT have to be complicated.