EMT Exam Rescue Launched in Alabama

After Jefferson State Community College graduated its first class of emergency medical technicians in December, only about 20 percent of the class passed an exam required by the state Department of Public Health.

''We were devastated,'' recalled emergency medical services program director

Charles Morton. ''We started looking at improving our program and giving our students the kind of program they deserve.''

The first step in that effort came Saturday and Sunday as the Valleydale Road campus hosted an instructor from Texas, Jon Puryear, who led a 16-hour course for those preparing to take the test and those who help paramedics prepare for the test.

''I take the high points of every class and explain it to them in a way that they get,'' Puryear said. ''I use grapes to explain the lungs. People might not know alveoli, but people understand grapes.''

Puryear said he is working with the state's medical instructors to raise the passing rate.

''I'm not working magic. They (the instructors) have been with these guys a year, a year and a half. I'm just a closer; I'm just another tool in the box,'' Puryear said.

The Alabama Fire College covered all but $15 of the $80 cost of the course, which was attended by about 150 people from across the state, said fire college president Allan Rice.

Alabama has the nation's second-lowest first time passing rate on the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians exam, with only about 38 percent passing it on the first try, Rice said.

''If enough instructors incorporate these teachings, we should be able to gradually over time increase the firsttime passing rate,'' Rice said.

Morton said this weekend's course was a good way to tie together the information paramedics learn during the year to a year and a half they spend in training.

''It helps to bring together everything they've learned and reinforces what they've been taught,'' Morton said.

Part of the reason for Alabama's low passing rate might rest, in part at least, with the instructors, Morton said.

Jefferson State's program, which has taken the place of a program the University of Alabama at Birmingham discontinued, has focused on providing professional development for those instructors, Morton said.

''We want people who are good field EMTs and who know the business and help them develop into good instructors,'' Morton said.

Despite the low passing rate, Morton said Alabama's paramedics, particularly those in the seven-county metropolitan area, are ''equal to or better than anybody in the country.''

''They have to know what they are doing (when taking the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians exam) and have to be able to control their emotions while taking a high-pressure test. That's what you need in a paramedic; someone who can control their emotions in a high-pressure situation and deliver the care that is needed.''

EMAIL: jgray@bhamnews.com