Office of EMS Suspends EMT-Instructor Written Testing Effective June 28, 2009

With the new Education Standards taking effect as of June 28, 2009, the Office of EMS has temporarily suspended the Written Pretest for the EMT-Instructor Certification in order to conduct the first major re-write since 1995.

Although there have been updates to the Instructor Written Pre-test over the years, the core exam is strictly based on the D.O.T. 1994 EMT-B National Standard Curriculum. The Division of Education Development (DED) is anticipating implementation of the Education Coordinator Certification in 2010 with the new Regulations and use of the Education Standards in programs in 2011. Instructor Candidates obtain 2-year eligibility after successfully passing the written pre-test, so Candidates who pass the exam this year may earn their Instructor Certification around the time the Education Standards are implemented. As such, the DED felt now was the appropriate time to rewrite the exam and begin basing it on the Education Standards and Practical Analysis since new Instructors will need to use the resources in order to teach in the future.

The DED plans to complete the rewrite and information on how to prepare for the exam no later than October 31, 2009, preferably sooner. Please stay tuned as more information becomes available. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Greg Neiman, BLS Training Specialist. (Gregory.Neiman@vdh.virginia.gov)

For more info, please visit http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/OEMS/Training/Suspends-Written.htm.

New OEMS Career Finder tool!

The Office of Emergency Medical Services has a new online Career Finder tool that allows you to post your resume, search for EMS jobs in Virginia, promote employment and volunteer opportunities and locate EMS agencies! Check it out today by visiting http://www.vaemsjobs.com/.

Swine flu and EMS – information you need

The Virginia Department of Health is playing a key role in alerting the community about the swine flu national health crisis, and OEMS want to ensure that all EMS providers are aware and know what to look for in a patient who may be infected and how they can protect themselves and their crew.

The swine flu is similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu which include, cough, fever, sore throat, nasal congestion and rhinorrhea. Additional symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, headache, chills, fatigue, dyspnea, pneumonia and respiratory failure. Persons with swine flu are contagious for up to seven days after the onset of illness and possibly longer if symptomatic.

In patients with some of these symptoms and you suspect it is the flu, we recommend the following:

 

·       Immediately place mask on patient, wear personal protective equipment during contact with the patient (i.e. gloves and mask if you cannot mask the patient)

·       Notify the receiving hospital, so that the masked patient may be directed immediately to a waiting exam room           

·       Create negative pressure in the ambulance by opening windows

·       Use infection control protocols when cleaning the ambulance or any vehicle the patient may have been transported in

 

We recommend checking the CDC Web site at www.cdc.gov and the VDH Web site  at www.vdh.virginia.gov for updates and more information about the swine flu situation in the United States.

 

Be aware and be safe!

Stressed out?

There are literally thousands of reasons for you to get stressed!

RELAX!!! Today is National Stress Awareness Day. This is your opportunity to recognize that there is plenty of stress in your life… as if you didn’t already know. More importantly, today is an opportunity to learn, and to do something about the stress…… before it drives you batty or worse. April is also designated as Stress Awareness Month. If you don’t address the stress and find ways to reduce it – it can have adverse affects on your health and your body. We want all of you to be healthy and happy!

 Here are some basic tips for stress reduction in your life:

1. Take a deep breath! – Taking a few minutes each day to dedicate to deep breathing is an excellent way to reduce stress and refocus.
2. Stretch it out – Get up from your desk periodically to stretch and take a moment from the computer
3. Me time – It’s hard to get quality “me time” but it is necessary to be able to recharge and de-stress – take a hot bath, read a book or just go for a walk around the block.
4. Exercise – Walking, Yoga, Tai Chi – exercise doesn’t have to be running a marathon, but it is an essential element to controlling stress
5. Food – Mom was right, we need to eat vegetables, fruits and foods like whole grains that give us energy and help the body
6. Let it go – sometimes we just have to learn to let it go, we can’t control everything or the actions of others, but you can control you! So inhale, exhale, relax and let it go!
7. Don’t forget to laugh – the most important one on the list! J

Spring into the latest on the OEMS Web page

Spring is here! The Easter Bunny will be hopping by and leaving jelly beans and yummy treats – at least that is what I tell my dog so he will stop chasing the bunnies in the yard!

It is a great time of year to get out, do some training and enhance those EMS and leadership skills. For the latest EMS classes or online training visit the OEMS web site! There is also some upcoming training for leaders in the EMS community that will be posted soon – keep hitting refresh until the classes are posted. Be sure to check out the Keeping the Best classes as well!

Also featured on the OEMS Web site is the pre-conference brochure for the 2009 EMS Symposium. You must see what we are offering for classes on the pre-conference day and see who the banquet speaker is this year! Registration for Symposium will open on August 11 – so mark your calendar.

Spring also brings new things – like a new grant to help fund your laptop computer so you can transition to electronic patient care reporting. Information on how you can get 100% funding for your toughbook computer is on the OEMS Web page.

The OEMS Web site is a valuable resource for information and updates on things going on in the Virginia EMS community. We are doing some spring cleaning to the Web site and will have more information on new classes, resources and a new look! Keep checking the site at www.vdh.virginia.gov/oems!

Be safe out there!

For Those Who Gave Everything

The 2009 inductees to the EMS Memorial were announced www.emsnetwork.org/artman2/publish/article_36100.shtml. There are 91 inductees this year. Fifty one of the honorees were involved with Medevac accidents. The Office of EMS and the State Medevac Committee are working on Medevac safety concerns and other core items to help keep the Medevac providers and patients safe.

However, others honorees were struck by cars, had heart attacks or were involved in ambulance crashes. As a community, we need to remember what we learned in EMT class – your safety comes first. We need providers to remember to be safe on the scene. Which includes:

• Wearing safety vests or reflective gear while working on or near the road
• Parking the ambulance or fire truck so that it helps to block you from oncoming traffic
• Take care of yourself – eat right, exercise and get regular physicals
•  Never enter a scene unless you know it is safe or police have secured the scene
• Always wear your seat belt on the ambulance and make sure all items in the ambulance are secure
• Don’t drive ‘lights and sirens’, unless it is absolutely necessary

As a way to honor those who gave everything to save others, we ask that you please do everything you can to stay healthy and safe in the field.

National Poison Prevention Week

Keep this number by all phones

Did you know that in 2007 there were over 70 thousand calls for poison exposures handled by the Virginia Poison Control network! The majority of those are for children under 5. Are parent’s forgetting to lock up the cleaners and potential poisons? Or are they not teaching their children that these items are poison? There could be a lot of reasons.

I remember the Mr. Yuck stickers that were used to warn children about poison. They had the green guy with his toung hanging out. My mom lectured me on poisons and not to touch anything with Mr. Yuck on it. So, I found myself affraid of him, but yet fasinated by the yuck – I know I am weird. But, I never drank laundry detergent, so I guess it worked for me. Now we need to support the poison centers in Virginia with their outreach and education efforts.

Hospitals, EMS agencies, Regional EMS Councils and other organizations can take this week as a time to remind their communities of the dangers of poison and toxin exposures and to make sure that everyone has the hotline handy! Because calls to the hotline have reduced illness, death and even health care costs by eliminated needless visits to the ER.

Here are some messages that you can share and some resources for your education efforts:

• Keep the poison center hotline (1-800-222-1222)  near your phone or program it into your cell phone
• Use child-resistant packaging properly by closing the container securely after use.
• Keep all chemicals and medicines locked up and out of sight.
• Call the poison center hotline 1-800-222-1222 immediately in case of poisoning.
• When products are in use, never let young children out of your sight, even if you must take the child or product along when answering the phone or doorbell.
• Keep items in original containers.
• Leave the original labels on all products, and read the label before using.
• Always leave the light on when giving or taking medicine. Check the dosage every time.
• Avoid taking medicine in front of children. Refer to medicine as “medicine,” not “candy.”
• Clean out the medicine cabinet periodically, and safely dispose of unneeded medicines when the illness for which they were prescribed is over.
• Visit www.poisonprevention.orgfor more tips and information or the OEMS Web site on the Virginia Poison Control Network www.vdh.virginia.gov/OEMS/PoisonControl/index.htm

Be safe and enjoy the weekend!

Twitter-ific news!

It takes a lot to be out in a snow storm riding the streets in a giant box on wheels – all to help someone in need! Snow storms don’t stop people from having medical emergencies and it definitely doesn’t stop our superhero EMS providers! That is what the job is about. It takes a special (your definition of special can be placed here) person to do this job! We are glad that you take on this challenge!

Do you want more information from us between the blogs? Visit us on www.twitter.com/virginiaemsand see updates as they happen. The OEMS bloggers will be twittering from meetings, updates and other important events that you may not be able to attend. Check it out – it is fairly new for us, but we are getting the hang of it.

Also – drum role please – dadadadadadadaaa – the OEMS Winter Bulletin is here! Check out great articles, events and be sure to look for Little Gary!  http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/OEMS/EMSBulletin/Winter2009.pdf 

That is all from the OEMS blog front. Be safe out there!

EMS Regulations – Your Turn for Comment

The Virginia Board of Health approved the proposed EMS Regulations to go through the public comment period before being made official. This is your time to speak and let us know what you think of the proposed additions and changes to the regulations.

Mike Berg, OEMS Regulations & Compliance Manager is going on tour to present some informational sessions on the proposed regulations. These sessions will go over the changes, how it will affect you and your agency and gather some of your thoughts on the changes.

If you would like to see Mike or have him come to your area visit the OEMS Web page for session locations and contact information for Mike www.vdh.virginia.gov/oems.

You will also find the draft proposed regulations on the Web site – these are there for you to review and discuss with your fellow EMS providers. We will soon announce the official forum for comments on our Web site and this blog.

This has been a rather serious blog compared to our past blogs, but the EMS regulations is a very important topic, and we feel it is important to discuss this with you all who are in the field and get your input.

Be safe out there!

Rural EMS Health Care Summit

For those of you who live and work in the rural areas of Virginia, you know that it’s a bit different from the city. A traffic jam may mean being stuck behind a tractor, or the cows got out and are standing in the road again. Rural living is great, but when it comes to EMS it can pose some challenges.

Access to training to become certified or stay certified may be limited The drive to get to the patient can be very long, keeping up skills can be hard, because you may not respond to as many calls as an agency in an urban setting. There are several issues that are unique to EMS agencies and providers in rural areas.

That is why the Annual Virginia Rural Health Summit is going to have two days dedicated to Rural EMS. The Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health and Health Policy and the Office of EMS are working together to put together this summit that will be the beginning of many conversations and actions to help support rural health care, especially rural EMS care.

This summit will feature a hands-on budget model workshop and a roundtable discussion that you all are invited to attend. If you want to discuss some of the issues and initiatives that surround rural EMS care, then please come and share your thoughts.

The Rural EMS Summit is being held as a part of the Annual Virginia Rural Health Summit, which works to solve challenges for rural health care and support the state rural health plan. To learn more about the plan and the summit visit www.va-srhp.org/.

Visit www.vaems.org/rhs today to learn more and register! Or contact Carol Morrow with the Office of EMS at carol.morrow@vdh.virginia.gov to see how we may be able to help cover the cost of your hotel.

March 10 – 13, 2009
Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
One Partnership Circle, Abingdon, VA 24210