911PROGAMS Educational Philosophies

Career-Oriented Medicine

• Our classes are geared toward those individuals seeking a career in the medical field.

• We use real scenarios from actual patient encounters - including actual photos where possible

• We consult with employers of medical professionals to discuss the qualities they are most seeking in new graduates and instill those characteristics in the classroom

Academic Environment

• Students are encouraged from the first class to think and act like a medical professional. To that end, our students come to class dressed how they would for their profession. For example, EMTs and Paramedics wear a golf shirt (provided by the program) and EMS pants; allied health students wear scrub suits (provided by the program)

• Instructors wear a uniform that identifies them as staff

• When students and instructors look professional, respect for the profession and each other begins

• Most lectures are delivered by power point and students can print handouts with all the slides right on the handout
  

• Lab stations are conducted using high-tech mannikins and real equipment that students would use in the career field

• Classroom sessions are generally 50 minutes followed by a 10 minute break
  

• Everyone shares everything they know. No one holds out so they can seem smarter or more qualified than anyone else.Team effort and choesiveness require and open-door policy with information

• Team and student safety is Job 1. There are inherent risks when working in the medical field. Calculated risks reduce that danger. Calculated risks are acceptable. Foolish risks are not.
  

Evidence-Based Medicine

• Medicine is not a pure science; at times, it is as much an art as it is a science.  There are gray areas and subjectivity

• When practicing or teaching medicine, especially emergency medicine, it is important to keep in mind that new data is always emerging. Sometimes that data has a solid foundation and is likely to become practice someday, other times small studies are suggestive of new insights but more research is needed before a change in practice is warranted

• Even in current practice, there is occasionally debate over the cause of illness or how best to treat it. In teaching emergency medicine, we strive to provide instruction that derives from evidence-based medicine. But we always s stay abreast of new developments and share those with our students and instructors.

Experience counts

• It's one thing to be book-smart as they say, but in emergency medicine, there's a catch - the patients don't read the book!

• There is no substitute for field experience, therefore like the Program Director, all instructors are experienced professionals who are currently working in the field

• During lectures and lab sessions, instructors will show "ideal" ways to work with patients and equipment, but they may also give students insight on how to adapt to less-than-ideal conditions

• The Program Director's personal philosophy is that an EMT is a person who can pull bark off a tree and make a splint