Re: LPs and degrees

[Guest guest]

While I am not a paramedic, and therefore don't have a dog in the

fight between licensed and certified, I am involved in education and

training and do have a few things to add to that end of the

conversation.

As has been pointed out here, education, specifically a college

degree, will not suddenly make a person who is all thumbs the

greatest IV starter or intubation tuber in the world. That is what

training is for...the learning of skills and the repeatative practice

of those skill until they are second nature, smooth and seemingly

effortless every time.

The value of the education is the education, not the piece of paper

which some folks seem to get hung up on. The learning skills that

come from the discipline of sitting in a classroom or a library

learning to apply theories, critically examine information and test

new ideas is invaluable. The art of learning to learn and to think

outside of the box are also something that comes from repeatative

practice through the educational process.

Education and the ability to study and to perform research is also

necessary for any new profession to establish itself as a profession

in and of itself...rather than be an offshoot of some other

profession. In my profession, health education, we are still in the

process of establishing ourselves away from basic education and

clinical health care providers.

In EMS, we have a field that is ripe to being called a profession

but has not established itself with its own curriculum (seperate

from other health care providers) and done the peer-reviewed type of

research necessary to prove that what we do in the field is vital

and necessary. In my nearly two decades associated with EMS, I have

meet a lot of professionals, but I have yet to see the research that

shows what we do is important in and of itself versus what we do is

important to support the care provided by hospital staff.

Another thought is that as we age, we may lose our skills but

knowledge gained is forever.

(Comments above are from the writer, not the employer.)

Barry Sharp, MSHP, EMT, CHES

Education Specialist

Office of Tobacco Prevention & Control

Texas Department of Health

barry.sharp@...

Check out the coolest tobacco site on the web:

www.dontgetburned.com