Medical students as EMTs: skill building, confidence and professional formation

Abstract

ObjectiveThe first course of the medical curriculum at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, From the Person to the Professional: Challenges, Privileges and Responsibilities, provides an innovative early clinical immersion. The course content specific to the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) curriculum was developed using the New York State Emergency Medical Technician curriculum. Students gain early legitimate clinical experience and practice clinical skills as team members in the pre-hospital environment. We hypothesized this novel curriculum would increase students’ confidence in their ability to perform patient care skills and enhance students’ comfort with team-building skills early in their training.MethodsQuantitative and qualitative data were collected from first-year medical students (n=97) through a survey developed to assess students’ confidence in patient care and team-building skills. The survey was completed prior to medical school, during the final week of the course, and at the end of their first year. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare self-ratings on 12 patient care and 12 team-building skills before and after the course, and a theme analysis was conducted to examine open-ended responses.ResultsFollowing the course, student confidence in patient care skills showed a significant increase from baseline (p<0.05) for all identified skills. Student confidence in team-building skills showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in 4 of the 12 identified skills. By the end of the first year, 84% of the first-year students reported the EMT curriculum had ‘some impact’ to ‘great impact’ on their patient care skills, while 72% reported the EMT curriculum had ‘some impact’ to ‘great impact’ on their team-building skills.ConclusionsThe incorporation of EMT training early in a medical school curriculum provides students with meaningful clinical experiences that increase their self-reported level of confidence in the performance of patient care skills early in their medical education.

The impact of an Emergency Medical Technician basic course prior to medical school on medical students

“…Data included pre/post- and lasting impact surveys, which have been described by Hofstra University’s researchers elsewhere [4], and were analyzed using a paired-samples t test. The pre/postsurvey asked scaled questions regarding students’ perceptions on the benefit of the EMT training on their patient care and team-building skills.…”

“…The pre/postsurvey asked scaled questions regarding students’ perceptions on the benefit of the EMT training on their patient care and team-building skills. On pre/postsurvey, questions ranged from ‘Not at all confident’ to ‘Very confident’ which used 1–4 scale [4]. On second survey, questions ranged on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 representing ‘no impact’ and 5 representing ‘great impact’ for lasting impact [4].…”

“…On pre/postsurvey, questions ranged from ‘Not at all confident’ to ‘Very confident’ which used 1–4 scale [4]. On second survey, questions ranged on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 representing ‘no impact’ and 5 representing ‘great impact’ for lasting impact [4]. In an attempt to build on earlier work on the value of EMT training, all students who completed the program during these 2 years were contacted and invited to participate in a ‘lasting impact’ survey and semistructured interview.…”

“…Although many schools often grapple with which preclinical experiences yield the most effective results [1], previous research has demonstrated that Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training increases medical students’ confidence in patient care and team-building skills [4]. To assess whether the pre-matriculation EMT training program would be a valuable addition at our medical school, evaluations from two cohorts of EMT students from the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) were assessed alongside data collected on participants in the form of semistructured interviews.…”

“…The addition of a qualitative interview was added above and beyond the data used in the previous study [4], because best practices in evaluation indicates researchers should include qualitative measures to explore unplanned effects [1]. The following sections provide a brief overview of our students’ pre-matriculation exposure at MCG, describe the design of the EMT course at our institution, and then offer data to support the value of a shortened version of EMT training as a preclinical experience.…”