Commonalities of the EMS Education Workforce (2004) in the United States

The purpose of the State of EMS Education Research Project was to quantify the characteristics of those recognized as EMS instructors, what infrastructure supports exist to facilitate the learning process, and what are the attributes and common practices embraced by the profession. The collection of EMS education system data will assist in the continued development and implementation of the EMS Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems Approach. The first phase of the study identified characteristics of the individual educators and their workplace. Based on data collected from a national survey of individuals identified as EMS educators. Phase II of the project utilized a panel of experts to identify common practices in EMS education derived from the data analysis in Phase I. Based on the consensus and description of the common practices, a set of recommendations were developed which would facilitate the transition to future curricula designs and educational delivery methods.

The methods used in this study replicated those used by Witkin and Trochim (1997 as a formalized group-oriented concept mapping process. The concept statements were derived from data generated by Ruple et al., which attempted to identify and describe the various aspects of the EMS educational process. After a comprehensive listing of the aspects, a reduction and grouping exercise resulted in the identification of 43 concepts. The unstructured sorting task replicated procedures described by Rosenburg and Kim, Trochim, and Weller and Romney. The 13 participants of the technical team (a subset of the task force) were then tasked with individually rating each of the 43 concepts. Cronbach's alpha, as well as, principal component analysis was used to analyze the data and then concept mapping theory was employed to convert the data into concept statements. After the ratings were generated, the concepts were consolidated and reduced to 21 concept statements. A Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient was computed comparing the rank of the top 10 most important concepts with the frequency of citation by the subgroup members and was found to be +0.92 [t(18) = 10.08, p < 0.0005]. The technical team's concept ratings were then validated by the full SEERP Task Force consisting of a national panel of experts in EMS education, administration, state regulation and certification.

There is a need to increase the theory and knowledge base of EMS educators, to prepare the infrastructure for change, and to improve evaluation procedures for student performance and outcomes and the integration of educational technologies. Integration of resources, development of support systems, coordination of initial and continuing education requirements, alliances with professional accreditation services, and partnership building with other allied health and medical academic education systems are priorities for improving the working conditions for EMS educators nationally. Recommendations by the panel are the appropriate response to the current condition of the EMS education setting and a basis on which to begin a seamless transition to the vision of the EMS Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems Approach.