NR Release on Accreditation

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Here is the complete release from the NR as I received it today.

Berry Ingram, EMT-P, Active NR Rep.

NREMT Board Votes to Require Paramedic Accreditation

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On November 13-14, 2007, the National Registry of EMTs Board of Directors

voted to require that applicants for national Paramedic certification

graduate from a nationally accredited educational program after December 31,

2012.

The motion was introduced in June 2007 and tabled to enable consultation

with other members of the EMS community. Following discussions with other

national EMS organizations, the board passed the motion unanimously on

November 14, 2007. The rationale for the change is based on the

recommendations in the EMS Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems

Approach as well as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report titled Emergency

Medical Services at the Crossroads. These two publications call for a

linkage of paramedic educational program accreditation with eligibility for

certification.

Currently, fourteen states require national accreditation of paramedic

education programs and, there are over 240 nationally accredited programs.

Most experts believe that this represents about one-half to one-third of the

active paramedic education programs in the country. The CoAEMSP is

committed to helping programs understand and meet the standards and

guidelines for accreditation, stated Randy Kuykendall, the current Chairman

of the Committee on Accreditation for EMS Educational Programs (CoAEMSP).

E. Brown, Jr., NREMT Executive Director said We believe that the

major barrier to achieving accreditation will be institutional support. We

hope that this policy provides paramedic program directors with the leverage

to get the same resources as other allied health education programs. There

is simply no reason why any quality program cannot achieve accreditation in

the next five years.

Another concern is the number of paramedic programs that are in

" non-traditional " educational settings. Dr. Hatch, CoAEMSP Executive

Director, stated We currently have accredited programs in all types of

locations and institutions. The CoAEMSP has a variety of mechanisms to meet

the sponsorship requirements. Virtually any type program, including

proprietary and agency based, can meet the sponsorship standard through

seeking independent institutional accreditation or collaborating with other

organizations to form a consortium.

While the EMS Education Agenda for the Future calls for educational

accreditation for all levels of EMS personnel, the IOM report recommends

requiring accreditation only at the paramedic level. The NREMT motion

affects only paramedic eligibility. Jimm Murray, NREMT Vice-Chairman (of

the Board of Directors) concludes that the current evidence supports

requiring accreditation at the paramedic level. We may revisit the issue of

accreditation at other levels at a later date.

This is an important step forward for the discipline of paramedicine,

concluded Sandy Bogucki, MD, PhD and Chairman of the NREMT Board of

Directors. Every occupational group that has evolved and gained credibility

as a profession has done so through strengthening their educational and

credentialing systems. We know that this change will be a challenge, but the

Board feels confident that accreditation will improve paramedic education

and ultimately the quality of care that patients receive in the out of

hospital setting.