Hey Everyone,

I have attached the PBSC Covid-19 Virtual Lab plan that we are moving forward with.  Please feel free to utilize for your program as you see fit.   Do not hesitate to contact me if you need to and stay safe!

Jennifer Truman wrote:

I know there have been some hospitals that have already removed students from clinical rotations.  Has anyone had their field internship (Fire Department, EMS agencies) remove students from rotations?

I know there have been some hospitals that have already removed students from clinical rotations.  Has anyone had their field internship (Fire Department, EMS agencies) remove students from rotations?

My program is shut down this week and next week is spring break anyway.  Our goal is to be back in class on the 30^th of March.  All clinical and internship sites are still available for Paramedic students at this time.  The EMT students were still a couple of weeks from starting.  Several of the clinical sites have stated they would not allow students once they had their first confirmed case. 

My students are dedicated and have expressed concern about being closed a week or even longer.   And one of our concerns is that a lapse of time will only create a larger problem of having to remediate and review after we return to class.  With that being said, audio lectures, PowerPoints, and notes have been uploaded for the students.  We will actively be using case studies, and discussion boards, quizzes, virtual ride alongs, and virtual simulation for online classes.  As with others, this is great for the didactic portion and we will play catch up with the lab and scenario portion. 

Hopefully this will go AWAY soon.

Tina

Hi Ted,

I sent this to all the Program Directors listed on the DOH website.  This should give some insight as to what we are doing at Palm Beach State...

I hope this email finds you well.  I have been reaching out to as many Program Directors as I can to exchange ideas, action plans, and create communication among EMS Programs throughout the State.   Though our programs may differ in size, location, and demographics, we will all be affected by the inevitability of a long-ish disruption Covid-19 will present to us and ultimately our students.     It is my hope that whatever contingency planning you have done or will do can be augmented with idea’s from another institution.  

Palm Beach State College has instituted (or will institute) the following:

• On Thursday, March 11^th, I made the decision to suspend all Clinical rotations to my entire program (EMT & Paramedic).  This proved to be very proactive, as the following day, our largest fire rescue partner, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue removed all students until further notice.   Also that same day, PBSC suspended onsite instruction effective 3/13 @ 5pm campus wide, with a move to begin online instruction on 3/23.
• My Department Chair has instructed our Paramedic and EMT faculty to develop contingency schedules to complete our program with a return date of March 23^rd, April 27^th, and May 26^th.   This will be subject to change depending on the length students will be away from the program. 
• Because all our handout material and approx. 15% of our program is via Blackboard,  all lecture material has been uploaded to each classes Blackboard platform.   All students will be provided access to all lecture material including the PowerPoints.  They will be given a morning and an afternoon assignment/schedule that will compress 2 days of lecture into 1 day. Given that the students are already prepared to dedicate a full day to the program on all their scheduled class days, they will be substituting didactic material in the place of the scheduled lab portion for the day.  While this will help the students didactically,  this compressed didactic content equates to the students having to “catch up” on lab skills and scenario materials upon their return.  We will then follow the pattern of doing a full day of lab content until all skills are made up.  After all lab material is caught up to the didactic schedule, we will resume a normal schedule of didactics in the morning and labs in the afternoon. 
• The lead instructors will remain available through both school email as well as cell phone/text message to allow questions to be asked/answered along the way.  
• PBSC utilizes EMS Testing for exams.   Our intent is to make all written tests available in an online format so the students can test remotely.    Tests will be timed and only open to a specific cohort at a specific date/time.   
• Our big hurdles moving forward:
  • CoAEMSP Appendix G numbers – We are thinking VERY outside the box here and are still formulating our plan.   The last email rec’d from CoA suggested that they are not deviating from their requirements.  While this may change in the future, we are operating under the mindset that they will stay true to their statement.  That said, my Psychomotor Lab Coordinator is developing a plan depending on the length of time students will be without Labs.
  • Clinical Rotations – This is our Achilles heel (as is with nearly all programs).    We really are at a standstill until our clinical sites (Hospital and Fire Rescue) allow us to return.     I have 3 paramedic cohorts in class who are scheduled to graduate August 18^th.   I am struggling to find any scenario in which that happens thereby forcing current students to continue on into the fall semester which in turn affects additional cohorts that would start around the same time.

Please feel free to respond with your thoughts or ideas.   Be safe!