Re: National

October 23, 2001

Unfortunately, the RFP was a public document and was put out for anyone to

bid on. We chose not to bid on it because it would have required a LOT of

people hours to do and there were some very restrictive clauses in it with

regard to liability, and so forth, that we at TJC found to be unworkable for

us.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, for an individual to perform the

service, in my judgment. NR is probably the best equipped entity to do it.

With regard to NR, the exams are not that difficult. Our students have a

very high pass rate on it, and I hate to say this to my out of state friends,

but, seriously folks, if Oklahomians and Arkansawyers and Louisiantics can

pass it, us Texans ought to be able to.

With regard to the new curriculum, we have been teaching most of it here at

TJC for the last 6-8 years at least, and there is very little in it that is

new to us. Some of the nursing stuff like therapeutic communications is new

for us, but it's easy, common sense stuff that will improve our skills. The

assessment stuff is nothing more than we need to know, and if our people are

going to be able to work in industrial medicine, offshore, in the ERs and in

non-traditional EMS roles they need to know this stuff.

I have written questions for the NR, and I can tell you that their system is

exactly the same that we USED to have here in Texas, where you had a group of

people get together and write/review questions.

So, I'm not ready to push the panic button over this. Some may differ.

That's why we have chocolate as well as vanilla.

Gene

October 23, 2001

Gene,

You may have a good point or two about the NR writing the test, however, you

said it was " somewhat " easier to pass than texas exams, Texas has been known

for the biggest and the best, so why should we possibly lower our standards.

I am very pround to be a member of the EMS in texas and feel that our

standards somewhat exceed others in our nation, I think we need to push to

reconsider before jumping on the NR band wagon. In the event we should turn

over the test writing to NR, we may not be able to get future funding to

write our own test if we feel the NR test arent suffucient.

just my two cents:

October 23, 2001

I don't mean to worry you Henry, but I agree 1000%.

Ron

National

Neil,

What is the cost of contracting with National? Can the state hire an

individual

or more that are qualified to write these test? Why exactly does it has

to be a

contract deal? It seems to me that a few in the state have decided that

this is

the way to go and have made the outcome seem that we have no other

choice to do

so. If no one else bid, what were the specifications of the bid? It

seems to me

a lot needs to be looked at before we full speed ahead with National. We

have

yet to prove that the new curriculum is an improvement over the old in

the terms

of patient outcomes. Someone mentioned earlier that some may be

concerned that

by going to National that we might affect the numbers of certified or

Licensed

personnel in the state. I think that must be considered as a priority. I

am not

saying it will, I am saying we need to consider it. Others have stated

that

other states may look down on Texas if we don't go to National. I say to

that "

They do not have the responsibility of taking care of the citizens of

Texas, We

do. " If we mandate our self out of business and destroy our resources,

we have

not accomplished anything. As one who has been beating their head

against the

wall to gain higher salaries for our employees, I will tell you and

based on

first hand knowledge that EMS is not a priority in the minds of the

people that

control the money. We may have to slow down a little, work with the

quality at

the level we currently have and figure a way to get more people

interested in

becoming Paramedics. We can have 100 Nationally Registered Paramedics or

we can

have a 1000 Texas certified paramedics. Unfortunately our numbers are

dropping

and I am not convinced that National will not cause that number to drop

even

farther.

Henry Barber

October 24, 2001

Mr Barber,

I find your post quite interesting. On one side of the arguement you say we

need to lobby to get higher pay...on the other side of the equation you say we

need to make sure we don't have a test that is so difficult that it actually

weeds people out. This perplexes me. In all the economics courses I have taken

it says that in order to obtain a higher price for something it must provide

higher value....it seems to me that if the NR test was truly " more difficult "

than the State of Texas exam it would give you ammunition to say your folks were

of higher value therefore the market would demand higher compensation.

Secondly, other states might look down on us for not using National Registry? I

was under the impression that NR was going to develop a Texas test....not that

Texas was becoming a NR state. Therefore, I would think that the Texas test

would be higher respected having a respected, well-known national organization

write it. Would Texas be higher respected if we had " Jimmy and Dave's Test

Writing and 10 minute Oil Change Company " writing our test?

Lastly, on the concern that this decrease the number of certified or licensed

personnel in the state. The test you take at the end of the educational process

is not what is keeping people out of EMS now. It certainly won't be in the

future. What is keeping people out of EMS now is the availability of less

stressful, better hours, better paying jobs with less educational requirements

than EMS in abundance. ***Think about this: You are 20 years old and looking

for something you can do. (Today's youth are looking to have a 3BR 2BA home, 2

cars, and 2.3 kids immediately like their parents have today...not realizing

that their parents worked 20+ years to get to where they are. Plus, they have a

burning desire to have time for them...i.e. work my hours and go home.....) They

look at two options. One they can go to school for 2+ years, get an associates

degree, become a LP, and get a job where they have to work every third day for

24 hours and get spit upon, puked on, yelled at, and lose sleep, spend more of

their off time in " certification " classes (that repeatedly offer the same

material in a different format without teaching anything new but it is a " new "

card so they have to have it)....OR they can go to a couple of classes to refine

thier knowledge, take a couple of exams (yes...they are tough and no one is

looking to dumb them down) and become A+ and/or MCSC certified in a matter of

weeks and get a job work

ing 8-5, on computers, in a clean well-lighted, environmentally controlled area

where when they go home they are at home...no " extra " certifications or classes

to take on the weekends when they are with their friends and family...AND make

more money doing it...and we sit around and wonder if a different group of

people writing an exam is going to decrease the number of paramedics. NO!!!

The nature of what we do, the hoops we have to jump through, and how we do it is

doing that...

I do have to agree that we need to find a way to attract people into this line

of work...and fast. I have just moved back to Texas from a state that had over

500 paramedic openings....We need to have a quality test so that when someone

passes it we know they know what they need to know...the question comes how to

find people to take that test.

Dudley Wait

October 24, 2001