A Punch in the Gut

I’m so angry right now it’s hard to put into words but for the benefit of my readers I am going to try.  I feel like I’ve had salt dumped into a healing wound by some of my fellow EMS providers.  It’s not good.

As a Massachusetts paramedic, I’ve been branded with a scarlet letter.  Mine is smaller than some people’s but thanks to the actions of some EMTs and paramedics in the eastern part of the state, all of our reputation and credibility has been damaged.  As I’m sure many of you know, a little over a year ago there were a number of providers that were busted for signing rosters and skipping out on classes that were required for them to recertify.  They lied.  They cheated.  Some of them got off easier than others, but even those who got short suspensions, the equivalent of a slap on the wrist, have to carry the burden of having been involved at some level.

The certification scandal has gotten a lot of publicity even in the blogs over the last year and I’ve kept pretty quiet about it since most of the people out there said what I would have said anyway.  I just sat back and shook my head at what was going on out in eastern Massachusetts and hoped that the general public would not lump us all together.  Many of the suspensions have been served, and I thought that we had been able to finally put bad press like that to rest.

Imagine how I felt when I got a link from a good friend and saw that the Baltimore City Fire Academy had shut down theirEMStraining center because the instructor was handing out answers to test questions.  Another instructor has done the wrong thing, and EMS as a profession has received another black eye.

How can we expect anyone to take us seriously when we can’t even do the most simple of tasks in a legitimate fashion?  How can we be taken seriously when we can’t even take our profession and the training that is required to even do the job?  It makes me sick to my stomach to even think about it.

To the instructors in Baltimore’s EMS training center: I hope you don’t get off as easy as some of the folks here inMassachusetts.  To the students: I’m sorry you had to be exposed to this kind of unethical, immoral behavior.  I hope you don’t think everyone in the field is like this.

And to the public served by the Baltimore City Fire Department: on behalf of EMTs and paramedics nation wide, I am sorry we let you down.

Read the article here.

Check out Random’s post about this same issue over at Red Light Express.

3 comments

  1. I am particularly happy that you mention “To the students:”

    We, as emergency service providers, must make it clear to the public that this is neither common (despite the unfortunate publicity of several recent similar instances) nor is it acceptable.

    In order for the public to know that we as a profession find this behavior unacceptable, we need to make it clear not only to each other as educators, but as you say to our students, both new and with many years of experience.

    How can we explain the importance of effective assessment and treatment skills if the providers that we are educating believe that other instructors simply allow a “pass” or a “CPR card” with a wink and a nod since “you already know this stuff.”

    I too am sorry that these students, and sadly others not mentioned in these scandals, are exposed to “Wink-and-Nod” education. It brings us all down.

    It should not be acceptable to you or to the public that we serve and it is CERTAINLY not acceptable to those of us who work hard to help keep our profession as a whole skilled in the emergent care of the sick and injured.

  2. Hueit /

    You know, and I know, that this happens every day, even in the most legitimate of classes. “This will be a collaborative test” I hear a lot. Some cheating cases are more blatant than others as the Boston incident, people were being signed in the course without them being there. I don’t think I’ve been to *any* class that was 100% legit, minus my actual paramedic class….

  3. Scott, I appreciate you linking my post on this one. I know that we’ve talked at long length about the ramifications of the actions taken by the instructors and those higher up. I would like to add, because I don’t think I made it clear in my post, the students should be held accountable for their own integrity; or lack thereof. Ethics are no joke in the field of public service. We all know about ethics violations when it comes to plagiarism, it goes the same for tests. You absolutely need to hold on to whatever integrity you have as a student, entering these programs and remember to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Even when these lines become blurred, you too will be held accountable.