Paramedics and educators Buck Feris and Steve Cole contributed an excellent article about hyperglycemia in acutely ill patients to the CentreLearn blog. Check it out.

The complexity of the question that led to this article gave me hope that there are paramedics that desire more knowledge, rather than paramedics that decline new knowledge.

Read related posts and tips:

1. Video Link: Absence Seizure in a Child While working on a CE lesson about seizures I was...
2. Video: Assessing Febrile Seizure Patients I have been working on a CE article about Febrile...
3. Tips for Rapidly Rising Number of Disabled Adult Patients A Centers of Disease Control and Prevention study shows that...

Blog.CentreLearn.com – My day job is being the Director of Education for CentreLearn Solutions. I add about two posts a week to the CentreLearn blog and manage our social media accounts.

Top Questions about CL Courses for Firefighters, Paramedics, and EMTs

Build your own Online Training Content

FDA Drug Safety Communication on Zofran – this article was contributed by paramedic Steve Cole. It is packed with information.

Medical Author Chat – on the EMSBlogs.com network I host the Medical Author Chat podcasts. Episodes are infrequent. When I can I also add posts related to my enjoyment of reading and writing.

Interview with Dr. Benjamin Luft about We’re Not Leaving about the initial and long-term response at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

My review of We’re Not Leaving.

Recent reads and news will bring you up to speed on my late summer and early fall reading list. I also announce taking the tablet plunge and pre-ordering an Amazon Kindle Fire.

EMS1.com

How are you doing in EMT Class? Use the ideas in this article to assess your progress. Self Assessment: Tracking Your Progress in EMT Class.

A new Everyday EMS Tip at EMS1.com on using Slideshare for EMS.

EMSEduCast

Rob Theriault and I helped Bill Toon by presenting at workshop for Kansas EMS educators. The workshop was repeated on three consecutive days. Rob recorded our 3rd session which was about teaching EMS and technology. You can view our recorded presentation.

PIOSocialMediaTraining.com

Some ideas on how a public safety agency can use an auto responder email campaign.

Loving the Run Blog

I shared my tips for running while on business or leisure travel at the Loving the Run Blog.

Read related posts and tips:

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2. Alternate Posting Locations September 2011 I also write posts frequently at Blog.CentreLearn.com, the blog of...
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A CE Mash-Up is a technique to design and deliver a continuing education program using materials available for use and consumption on the internet. Each CE Mash-Up will suggest content to combine in your own blog post, website, or learning management system.

Slideshare Presentation

View this presentation, innovations in stroke care from EMS Educator Rom Duckworth.

Articles

Search the article archives at EMS1.com, EMSWorld.com, and JEMS.com for articles about updates in stroke care, innovative treatments, and transporting patients to stroke specialty centers.

Podcasts

Look for episodes in the archives of the MedicCast, such as episode 252, about stroke assessment, treatment, and care.

Learn about Stroke Alert

Does your community have a stroke alert program? Check out this video from the HealthONE Stroke Alert program.

What else would you put in a stroke assessment and treatment continuing education mash-up?

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While working on a CE lesson about seizures I was struck by the reality that EMS professionals very rarely see the patient seizing. We usually arrive when the patient is post-ictal. I have seen very few seizures in progress and most of the seizures I have seen were tonic-clonic and not absence seizures.

I visited YouTube, the number two internet search engine, and searched for absence seizures and found this video of a 5 year old. At the request of the video creator I am not able to embed the video so go to YouTube-Absence Seizure now and come right back.

Subtle Signs

If it weren’t for the annotations added to the video I am not sure I would have recognized the seizure signs. The signs are very subtle – swallowing, hair tugging, stopping purposeful activity, and not responding to the adult. Then the seizure ends and the child quickly resumes her previous activities.

Concerned Mom

Can you hear the concern in mom’s voice? I sure can. It made me think of all the times I have been called to assess a “sick” child and found a child that was anything but sick. On so many of those occasions mom apologizes or you can still hear the fear and worry in her voice, but there is nothing there to support the concern. This video is a good reminder that mom usually worries for a reason – something bad happened that was abnormal.

Could be a Lot Worse

A lot of what if’s arrive from this video … what if the child had been under water when she had the seizure or walking across the street or riding her bike or climbing the stairs. An absence seizure could potentially precipitate a traumatic injury.

Learn More

This video also reminds me of how complex seizures are and relative to that complexity I really now. The Epilepsy Foundation has been distributing a free continuing education lesson on EMS Response to Patients with Seizures that has been getting a great response from EMS.

Using Videos for Simulation Education

At the NAEMSE Symposium educator Twink Dalton shared a great tip. She posts pictures on the screen above the high fidelity patient simulator to help put the EMS professionals into the environment, understand the mechanism, or see things on the patient’s skin that can’t be simulated. Use a video like this to have a class discussion about absence seizures, assessing a pediatric patient, or preface a pediatric patient simulation.

Another Absence Seizure Video

Also from YouTube. It is not normal for a toddler to lay still when a camera is in her face. As you watch this video look for subtle signs and then try to pinpoint the moment when the seizure breaks. I think it happens a few moments before the adult starts talking. What do you think?

Read related posts and tips:

1. Get Seizure Smart: Take the Quiz Test your seizure and epilepsy knowledge with the seizure smart...
2. Video: Assessing Febrile Seizure Patients I have been working on a CE article about Febrile...
3. Press Release: Triage Link App for the iPhone and iPad Divergent Technology, a Vermont company, has created an iPhone/iPad application...

This is a new event you should pencil in for 2012. The 1st Annual World Trauma Symposium will be hosted by PHTLS and EMS World Expo on November 1, 2012.

Need trauma continuing education or PHTLS certification. Check out great options for PHTLS Online to receive 8.0 hours of PHTLS trauma CE or enroll in a PHTLS Hybrid course.

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In my business developing online education programs I notice big usage surges towards the end of each quarter. The biggest surges come as the calendar approaches December 31 (for EMTs and paramedics that recertify at the end of the calendar year) and March 31 (associated with National Registry recertification).

Passing the NREMT CBT Exam

Sean Eddy at MedicMaddness.com shares his method for preparing for the NREMT CBT exam. Sean lays out an excellent study method to review only the material he needed to know. Congratulations!

EMS Continuing Education

During his Monday Minute Jim Hoffman, the EMS Professional, responds to a recent EverydayEMSTips.com post by asking, “EMS Continuing Education – are you satisfied?” Also check out Jim’s 5 cc’s of life t-shirts. Clever.

“Protecting Those that Can’t Protect Themselves”

My Lab after a Good Brushing

Scaredy Fish writes a terrific post about recognizing and reporting animal abuse. I really appreciate and admire EMS professionals that understand that our role in the community can and should go beyond assessing and treating a 911 caller.

Motor Cop also shares a “Request from Rover” about the dangers of leaving your dog in a parked car.

Read related posts and tips:

1. Posts Outside the Service Area: Continuing Education Two weeks ago I wrote about continuing education and EMT...
2. Posts Outside the Service Area: Resources, Continuing Education, and HIPAA Training New Resource Downloads from MedicMadness.com Medic Madness blogger Sean Eddy...
3. Priority Posts from Outside the Service Area I overheard some priority traffic from other EMS bloggers and...

Do you know some EMTs only complete the minimum required CE?

When I reapply every two year I usually have way more than the minimum required CE hours. In some categories I often have double the required hours. One person, me, does not make a focus group, but nonetheless I was puzzled when I received this note from a colleague at a medical advocacy organization has designed a continuing education program for EMTs and Paramedics. The national organization and its regional groups are working hard to distribute the program. The letter …

“Greg, I am having trouble marketing our continuing education program to EMS organizations. I am being told EMTs are not intending to take the training because they pay up front for two years of Continuing Education access, and once they get all the credits they need they are not willing to do any extra lessons, even if its free until it’s time to “re-certify”.

Have you ever heard of this thought-process for some EMS professionals?  They pay for their own, do however many lessons they need to all at once for the credits they need, and then forgo any extra opportunities for education, even if free? Obviously, there are exceptions who will recognize the usefulness of the content and do it anyway.  I am mostly just curious of your professional opinion and feedback.”

To recap:

• Free continuing education developed by experts
• Available for EMS professionals
• Topic is about a frequently encountered medical problem

My Opinion

The thought process of “I have enough CE and refuse to take any additional CE” does not belong to “EMS professionals.” That attitude belongs to a small (hopefully) subset of EMS providers. Not professionals. To me it is shameful to put out your hand and say, “nope I am done learning until March 31, 2012. Until then I know everything I will need to know.”

Do you encounter this attitude? How can it be overcome?

My Feedback

EMS continuing education programs, especially if they go above and beyond the minimum required knowledge, will rarely succeed if marketed to individuals. Unfortunately far too many of EMS providers wait until they are told or required to do something. The marketing efforts need to be to the chief or training officer that can mandate completion of the CE lesson.

What did you learn about recently without being assigned or mandated to learn? Share those links and resources in the comments.

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While wrestling through a written test I had this idea. Each student takes the test on their own and submits their answers for grading. Then in groups of two or three – just like a real patient contact – students answer the same set of questions. While reading the test questions I had occasions, again just like a real call, I would want to say to another paramedic:

“What do you think is going on here?”
“Should we do A or B?”
“When would it make sense to do C?”

Do you allow students to collaborate on test taking?

For online education one of the frequent complaints is cheating. Well why not require students to take the test with a partner.

What do you think?

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I create narrated flash movies that are the result of converting PowerPoint to flash with a program called Articulate Presenter. One of the most common questions I receive is “How many PowerPoint slides should I have in a 30 minute elearning program?”

They are rarely satisfied with my answer, “The number of slides doesn’t matter.”

“Well someone told me to never use more than 30 slides in a 30 minute presentation.” Or I was advised this:

“We can’t have this lesson be any more than 10 slides.”

The better question is “How many words should be in the audio script for a 30 minute elearning program?”

When converting PowerPoint to Flash, PowerPoint is the storyboard for designing the lesson. Each slide is like a frame in a movie. If the slide has animations it is like multiple frames in a movie. When I watch a movie every 3 to 10 seconds (sometimes even quicker) the on-screen visual changes. A newscast is filled with changing graphics. In this regard an elearning lesson is much more like a television show or movie than a classroom presentation.

30 minute lesson = ~4000 words

Typically I script elearning lessons by writing the narration in the notes view of the PowerPoint slide. The word count of the script determines the length of the lesson. 150 slides with 10 words of narration (the audio track) is a lesson that is 10 to 12 minutes long. 75 slides with a word count for the narration that is about 4100 words will be a lesson that is about 30 minutes long.

When creating a lesson I usually write one paragraph or one important point per slide. That leads to slides that will be on screen for 10 to 45 seconds. Each slide usually has one or more animations so something is happening on the screen at least every 30 seconds. Visual change with interesting audio content and opportunities to interact with the lesson helps keep students engaged throughout the lesson.

Explain your parameters for determining the length of an elearning lesson. Thanks.

Read related posts and tips:

1. 3 Books on E-Learning Design When I first started designing and producing continuing and refresher...
2. Slides: Trends in Online Emergency Responder Education #EMSWorldExpo Slides from my 2011 EMS World Expo presentation, Trends in...
3. E-Learning Development Tools for EMS Educators My production process to create online education for emergency responders...

EMS professionals have many opportunities to apply for scholarships for initial education, continuing education, and conference attendance. I am occasionally asked to review and rank scholarship essays and have these tips for all applicants.

1. Carefully review the eligibility and application criteria.

2. Understand the essay question or topic. Reflect and brainstorm on the question/topic before you start writing.

3. Writing in an active voice using the first person.

4. Write well ahead of the deadline so you have time to review.

5. Use spell and grammar check. Also perform a word count to make sure you are within the word limit.

6. Ask a friend, relative, or mentor to proof read your application.

7. Read what you have written out loud.

Finally, I have noticed far fewer people apply for scholarships that I expect. Your odds of success are better than you think.

What are your tips for a successful scholarship application?

Two scholarship opportunities for EMS World Expo 2011 in Las Vegas.

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