van den Bergh Shea L, Logan Lakeshia T, Powell Jonathan R, Gage Christopher B, Crawford Kathryn R, Collard Lisa, Miller Michael G, Panchal Ashish R
National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Columbus Ohio USA.
Division of Epidemiology The Ohio State University College of Public Health Columbus Ohio USA.
J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2024 Oct 17;5(5):e13316. doi: 10.1002/emp2.13316. eCollection 2024 Oct.
The COVID-19 pandemic required unprecedented changes to emergency medical services (EMS) educational frameworks in the United States. It is unclear if pandemic-related changes impacted paramedic educational outcomes. We aimed to evaluate curricular and performance changes resulting from the initial COVID-19 pandemic on paramedic educational programs.
We performed a retrospective cross-sectional evaluation of paramedic educational programs in 2019 and 2020 using the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions annual reports. These reports contain detailed program components and measures of program success. We included programs reporting at least one graduate in the study period. Descriptive statistics (proportions [%], median [interquartile range, IQR]) were calculated for paramedic program characteristics in 2019 and 2020, as well as pandemic specific curriculum changes. Wilcoxon rank-sum and Fisher's exact tests were used to evaluate differences in characteristics by year.
The number of paramedic educational programs in our population decreased from 640 programs in 2019 to 612 in 2020, with a statistically significant decrease in clinical hours (2019: 219 [IQR 168‒272]; 2020: 200.5 [IQR 157‒261]). There was no difference in first or third-attempt certification examination success between years. Temporary shutdown was experienced in 34% of programs (duration: 3 weeks [2‒7]) and 72% of required curricular changes. Curricular changes commonly included decreased in-person education (86%), traditional classroom lectures (78%), number of clinical sites (78%), and increased online didactic education (92%). Only 20% of programs decreased laboratory simulation or total training hours.
During the pandemic, paramedic educational programs changed educational delivery with no observed differences on overall program performance. Identifying key curricular changes and best practices for implementation may be necessary to better optimize future educational delivery.
新冠疫情要求美国紧急医疗服务（EMS）教育框架做出前所未有的改变。尚不清楚与疫情相关的变化是否影响了护理人员的教育成果。我们旨在评估新冠疫情初期对护理人员教育项目所产生的课程和表现变化。
我们利用紧急医疗服务专业教育项目认证委员会的年度报告，对2019年和2020年的护理人员教育项目进行了回顾性横断面评估。这些报告包含详细的项目组成部分和项目成功的衡量标准。我们纳入了在研究期间报告至少有一名毕业生的项目。计算了2019年和2020年护理人员项目特征以及特定疫情课程变化的描述性统计数据（比例 [%]、中位数 [四分位间距，IQR]）。采用Wilcoxon秩和检验和Fisher精确检验来评估各年份特征的差异。
我们研究中的护理人员教育项目数量从2019年的640个减少到2020年的612个，临床时长有统计学显著下降（2019年：219 [IQR 168‒272]；2020年：200.5 [IQR 157‒261]）。各年份首次或第三次尝试认证考试的成功率没有差异。34%的项目经历了临时关闭（持续时间：3周 [2‒7]），72%的项目进行了所需的课程更改。课程变化通常包括面对面教育减少（86%）、传统课堂讲座减少（78%）、临床站点数量减少（78%）以及在线理论教育增加（92%）。只有20%的项目减少了实验室模拟或总培训时长。
在疫情期间，护理人员教育项目改变了教育交付方式，总体项目表现未观察到差异。确定关键的课程变化和实施的最佳实践可能是更好地优化未来教育交付的必要条件。
