VTEMSD#3 Training Committee Minutes for 01-13-00

Jan 13, 2000

The meeting was called to order at 1835 hours by Chair Greg Thweatt. 16 out of 22 services were represented. Those in attendance were:

Pat Malone EMT - B Coordinator

Greg Thweatt EMT - I Coordinator, Training Committee Chair

Tara Pacy District Board Chair

Peter Keibel (R) Bolton Valley Ski Patrol

Ray Walker (R) Charlotte Rescue

Lauri L’Ecuyer (R) Colchester Rescue

Kathy Mumma (R) Essex Rescue

Gilbert Helmken (R) FAHC E.D. Nursing

Debbie Baron (R) Grand Isle Rescue

Peter Keibel (A) Iroquois First Response

Howie Rice (R) Malletts Bay Fire Department

Ted Conant (R) Richmond Rescue

Greg Thweatt (A) Shelburne Rescue

Maureen Leahy (A) So. Burlington Fire Department

Jim Laskarzewski (A) St. Michael’s Rescue

Lisa Copping (R) UVM Rescue

Bill Clark (R) Vergennes Rescue

Jim Laskarzewski (R) VT Air Guard Fire Dept, Clerk

Roberta Penchina (V) Milton Rescue

Introductions: None

Review Agenda: The chair briefly reviewed the agenda for the meeting.

Approval of Minutes

Motion to accept minutes of November meeting by Maureen, second by Ray. Reminder that minutes are posted on the web page and are distributed over the list server. Minutes will be mailed out to those representatives who do not have internet access. Motion passed.

Announcements:

Next meeting will be held on Feb. 10, 2000 at 1830 hours at St. Michael’s College.

Exam Testing: Testing was held on Dec. 11^th. There were 80 recerts, 42 have received notice, 38 still have not completed CE requirements or have paperwork problems. Contact State office if you have not received word yet. Pat M. reports the EMT class had the average number of failures in practical stations, written test results are not in yet.

Biggest problem was with the testing on the 11^th. There was a large number of people there to test and a small number of people to administer the test. Testing went longer than intended which created frustration for students, evaluators, recerts, et. al.. Many people signed up ahead of time to assist with evaluating and a lot of them did not show up. Pat is looking for ideas to improve the system. Peter K suggested staggering the day, recerting some in the morning and using them as evaluators later on in the day.

Pat expressed the need to hold evaluator training again. A couple of issues came up at testing that required intervention. Overall, the day of testing was not easy. A bigger squad commitment is needed and system changes need to be made. There were recerts from other districts and the numbers are expected to grow annually. Debbie noted that the National Registry requirement for March recert might have contributed to the large number of people recerting in December.

Ray expressed a concern with broken equipment at stations adding to the frustration of the day. Pat replied that all the equipment was working on Friday evening when the stations were set up, equipment does get tired after a full day of testing and he is not aware of anyone ever failing as a result of equipment failing to function.

Greg quickly added the EMT-I class experienced 5 failures of practical stations and 6 failures of the written.

Exam Retest: Scheduled for Jan 27^th at 1800 hrs at Rowell. Contact Keith Robinson @ 879-0757 to assist. Set up will be for practical stations and refresher exam testing.

FAHC Case Review: Jan 18^th, scene safety issues with Karg, details pending.

EMT-B & EMT-I Courses: Updated course outlines distributed. EMT-I class has 22 students enrolled. EMT-B class numbers are constantly changing. If squad members need CE credits or wish to be patient models or wish to assist with practicals just show up at class.

AD Hoc committee to coordinate District training calendars (Bill Clark, Laurie, Ted, Peter) Bill distributed a District wide training survey, please take a few moments to complete and return to him. Return to the VARS mailbox at FAHC.

First Responder Instruction Role Out: Scheduled for Jan 15^th. Bill Clark, Tara, & Lee Jones will attend. This is an orientation for the curriculum. A note from the State said this was only available to Instructor Coordinators (IC’s) and District Officers, a decision on who would attend was needed last week. All IC’s and Officers were contacted and these three volunteered. After the meeting Tara hopes to be able to discuss where we want to go from here with training. These three will be bringing info back to the rest of us, possibly at a District meeting set up for this purpose. After their report we need to work on how to approve courses so we avoid the ECA course problems we had previously, i.e. quality control. Howie asked for a timeline for course distribution. Greg replied he would have a better idea after the 15^th, his hope is to have a couple of courses this year. He cautioned that we really need to consider the quality control issue.

CISD Workshop: Northern New England Critical Incident Stress Management Workshop at St. Michael’s from Jan 19 through the 22^nd. Gil is a member of the team and the team could use some more help. There are a couple of different courses happening during that period. Call Gil with questions.

Old Business:

Policy on course requirements for District approved certification or refresher courses: Bill started by saying his service had no huge objections to the policy. His only question concerned the need for practical instructors from outside of the service and how to find these people – do we create a list and how do we do this without offending some one. Greg stated, any policy needs to be reasonable and enforceable. This policy would predominantly affect 1^st responder and refresher courses. Peter suggested the list could initially be all the IC’s but expect them to burnout quickly. He likes the idea of each service submitting a couple of names to the committee, have these people pair up with experienced instructors and keep the list going in this fashion. Greg suggested some criteria be developed for instructors to meet. Peter suggested we trust the squads to send appropriate members. The program of course evaluation forms will also need to be maintained. ECA courses used to have difficulty in obtaining squad participation, this list may make courses easier to administer. Debbie asked how this program would work if people from other Districts were needed due to location. Greg thinks flexibility is the key and this is not an insurmountable issue. A bigger concern is how to resolve problems, this is somewhat addressed in the draft. Greg and Maureen will redraft and present at the next meeting.

New Business:

Candidate for Instructor Course: Course starts this weekend. Four applications will be brought up at the District Board meeting, there is one available slot. Greg states there is a need for a more concrete process for evaluating applicants.

Meeting adjourned at 1932 hours.

Respectfully submitted, Jim Laskarzewski, clerk

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gthweatt@shelburne.k12.vt.us
Last updated: January 28, 2000