Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU)

NAEMT's Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) is recognized around the world as the leading continuing education program for prehospital emergency trauma care. The mission of PHTLS is to promote excellence in trauma patient management by all providers involved in the delivery of prehospital care. PHTLS is developed by NAEMT in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma. The Committee provides the medical direction and content oversight for the PHTLS program.

PHTLS courses improve the quality of trauma care and decrease mortality. The program is based on a philosophy stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs. PHTLS promotes critical thinking as the foundation for providing quality care. It is based on the belief that, given a good fund of knowledge and key principles, EMS practitioners are capable of making reasoned decisions regarding patient care.

Topics:

• Physiology of life and death
• Scene assessment
• Patient assessment
• Hemorrhage control
• Airway
• Breathing, ventilation, and oxygenation
• Circulation and shock
• Special populations

The course emphasizes the application of trauma education through case studies, skills practice, and patient simulations.

PHTLS is the global gold standard in prehospital trauma education and is taught in over 80 countries. PHTLS is appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physician assistants, physicians, and other prehospital practitioners. PHTLS is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.

PHTLS is offered in the following formats:

• Provider Course: 16-hour course for EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physician assistants, physicians, and other prehospital providers.  Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as PHTLS providers for 4 years, and 16 hours of CAPCE credit.  This course may be offered as a classroom course, or a hybrid course where students take 8 hours of the course online followed by 8 hours in the classroom.
• Online PHTLS Module: 8-hour online module that covers the didactic portion of the 16-hour provider course. Upon successful completion of the module, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.
• Refresher Course:  8-hour classroom course for individuals who have successfully completed the 16-hour PHTLS provider course within the past four years.  A current PHTLS provider certificate or wallet card is required. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

NAEMT's Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) course teaches EMS practitioners and other prehospital providers how to respond to and care for patients in a civilian tactical environment.

The course presents the three phases of tactical care and integrates parallel EMS nomenclature:

• Hot Zone/Direct Threat Care
• Warm Zone/Indirect Threat Care
• Cold Zone/Evacuation Care

The 16-hour classroom course includes all new patient simulations and covers the following topics:

• Hemorrhage control including immediate action drills for tourniquet application
• Complete coverage of the MARCH assessment
• Surgical airway control and needle decompression
• Strategies for treating wounded responders in threatening environments
• Caring for pediatric patients
• Techniques for dragging and carrying victims to safety
• A final, mass-casualty/active shooter event simulation

NAEMT's TECC course is endorsed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, is consistent with the current guidelines established by the Committee on TECC (Co-TECC), and meets all of the updated National Tactical Emergency Medical Support Competency Domains. This course is accredited by CAPCE for 16 hours of continuing education credit, and recognized by NREMT.

TECC is offered in the following formats:

• Provider Course: 16-hour classroom course for EMTs and paramedics. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as TECC providers for 4 years, and 16 hours of CAPCE credit.
• Refresher Course:  8-hour course for individuals who have successfully completed the 16-hour TECC provider course within the past four years. A current TECC provider certificate or wallet card is required. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.
• TECC for Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders (TECC-LEO): An 8-hour classroom course specifically designed for law enforcement officers and other non-EMS first responders. The course covers materials found in the 16-hour TECC provider course at a level appropriate for first responders. It includes 8 hours of content, which includes interactive lectures, skill stations, and patient simulations. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as a TECC-LEO provider for 4 years, and 8 hours of CAPCE credit for qualified participants.

The All Hazards Disaster Response (AHDR) course employs a systems-based approach to disaster preparedness and response, with a focus on caring for ill and injured patients during a mass-casualty incident or disaster. The course teaches students how to respond to the many types of disaster scenarios they may encounter, including natural disasters, infrastructure failings, fires and radiological events, pandemics, active shooter incidents, and other mass casualty events. AHDR educates participants on the critical actions required to support patient and practitioner safety during disaster response.

Topics covered in the course include: 

• Incident Command System
• Communicating effectively during disasters
• Mutual aid and interoperability
• PPE and infectious diseases
• Managing resources such as supplies, medications, and equipment
• Incendiary devices and blast injuries
• Triage and transport strategies and challenges
• Patient tracking and evacuation

AHDR includes a robust library of disaster simulations to provide learners with the opportunity to apply scene size-up, patient triage, evacuation, and transport decisions in a low-stakes, structured environment. Course activities reinforce key concepts of disaster response.

AHDR is appropriate for all levels of EMS practitioners and other medical professionals providing prehospital care. This course is offered in the classroom and provides 8 hours of CAPCE credit and NREMT recognition.

NAEMT’s EMS Safety course teaches students how to protect themselves and their patients while on the job. It promotes a culture of safety and helps reduce the number of on-the-job fatalities and injuries. EMS Safety is the only national, comprehensive safety course for EMS practitioners. Its interactive format features real-life case studies and compelling discussions on current safety issues, and provides students with a forum to share their own experiences. Course activities allow students to apply critical thinking and best safety practices to EMS scenarios.

Students are taught to:

• Identify and manage the hazards that can appear during daily tasks, from offensive drivers to violent encounters to chronic stress
• Describe and apply the principles of crew resource management in EM
• Apply techniques to maintain safe vehicle operations
• List and assess strategies to apply in the field that improve patient safety
• Identify strategies to ensure practitioner safety
• Strengthen resilience skills and focus on personal health to combat both chronic and critical incident stress

Topics covered include:

• How safety impacts patients and practitioners, from maintaining a culture of safety in changing situations to communication and documentation strategies
• Crew resource management in EMS, modeling effective communication, maintaining situational awareness, and being an effective member of a team
• Emergency vehicle safety including maintenance and inspection considerations, responsibilities of due regard, defensive driving techniques, and common causes of vehicle collisions and strategies to avoid them
• Safety in the roadway, including multi-agency pre-planning, vehicle and practitioner visibility techniques, and defensive staging practices
• Patient safety, strategies to identify and prevent common patient errors, just culture, and safe handling techniques for all patients.
• Practitioner safety, situational awareness, and verbal, physical, and chemical techniques to de-escalate potential threats
• Injury and infection prevention and control
• Practitioner personal health, resilience skills, and ensuring personal readiness for the daily challenges and hazards of working in the field

EMS Safety is offered as an 8-hour classroom course and is appropriate for all levels of EMS practitioners, other medical professionals providing prehospital patient care, and EMS supervisors and administrators. Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion and a wallet card good for 4 years. EMS Safety is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.

NAEMT's EMS Vehicle Operator Safety (EVOS) course addresses the knowledge gap that leads to injuries and deaths, and focuses on the specific behaviors that need to be changed to create a culture of safe driving.

Drawing on the most current research about the behaviors and other hazards that lead to crashes, EVOS features case studies and analyses of both common and catastrophic collisions. EVOS challenges EMS practitioners to reconsider their preconceptions about safe vehicle operations. Instructors can easily incorporate local laws, rules and policies into the curriculum. 

Topics covered in the course include:

• Making driving safety a priority
• Legal aspects of EMS vehicle operation
• Maneuvering an EMS vehicle
• Mental, emotional and physical preparedness
• Emergency response
• Crash prevention
• Driving skills
• Technological aids

EVOS is appropriate for EMS practitioners at all levels.  EVOS is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.

EVOS is offered in the following formats:

• 8-hour classroom course; or
• 16-hour course with 8 hours of classroom content and 8 hours of hands-on driving instruction

Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as an EVOS provider for 4 years, and either 8 or 16 hours of CAPCE credit.

Due to the difficult environments EMS personnel encounter every day, and the impact of both direct and vicarious trauma, our EMS workforce has long faced a disproportionate challenge in maintaining their mental health resilience. 

NAEMT, with support from FirstNet®, Built with AT&T, has developed a course to assist EMS agencies in building and supporting the mental health resilience of their personnel. 

The Mental Health Resilience Officer (MHRO) course prepares EMS personnel to serve as their agency’s Mental Health Resilience Officer. In this role, the MHRO will engage with peers to develop an understanding of mental health issues and resilience; identify peers who are experiencing mental health stressors and crises; navigate peers in need to the right services for help; and support the development of a culture of mental health resilience and emotional wellness within the agency. 

The course covers: 

• The role of a Mental Health Resilience Officer
• The impacts of EMS work on mental health and emotional well-being
• Mental health resilience at the individual, interpersonal, and agency level
• Communication strategies to engage your colleagues regarding mental health issues
• Case studies in EMS mental health; Key elements of an effective agency EMS mental health resilience program
• How to build or strengthen an agency mental health resilience program and resources to support the MHRO

This course is designed for EMS practitioners who meet the following qualifications: 

• At a minimum, current state certification or license as an EMT
• At least three years of full-time practice (or equivalent) at the EMT level or above
• Strong interpersonal communication skills with an interest in serving in this position
• Prior experience with critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) and/or motivational interviewing preferred

The Mental Health Resilience Officer (MHRO) is an 8-hour classroom course for EMS personnel. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

NAEMT's Psychological Trauma in EMS Patients (PTEP) course gives EMS practitioners the resources they need to help alleviate patients’ hidden wounds – intense fear, stress and pain – during a medical emergency.

PTEP educates EMS practitioners about the biological underpinnings of psychological trauma, the short and long-term impact on the brain and body, and warning signs that a patient is experiencing extreme psychological distress. EMS practitioners are also taught strategies and techniques to alleviate patients’ distress and help patients cope with what they’re experiencing to ward off lingering effects.

The 8-hour classroom course features scenario-based interactive sessions and lectures. Topics covered include:

• The invisible wounds of psychological trauma
• Reducing psychological traumatic stress
• Understanding the physiological stress response
• Applying the eSCAPe principle to patient care
• Patient simulations
• Recognizing psychological trauma within EMS

PTEP is designed for EMS practitioners and other prehospital providers. The course is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.  Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card good for 4 years, and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS) remains the gold standard of education for emergency medical assessment and treatment. Endorsed by the National Association of EMS Physicians, AMLS emphasizes the use of the AMLS Assessment Pathway, a systematic tool for assessing and managing common medical conditions with urgent accuracy.

Students learn to recognize and manage common medical crises through realistic case-based scenarios that challenge students to apply their knowledge to highly critical patients. The course emphasizes the use of scene size-up, first impression, history, detailed physical assessment, and interactive group discussion on differential diagnosis and potential treatment strategies to systematically rule out and consider possibilities and probabilities in treating patients’ medical crises. The fourth edition AMLS library of over 75 patient simulations offers students an opportunity to apply critical thinking skills to a variety of patient presentations. Additional features include patient simulation monitor images and ECGs provided by iSimulate, to enhance students’ experience.

The course utilizes the AMLS textbook and course manual, and covers the following topics:

• Pharmacology
• Respiratory disorders
• Cardiovascular disorders
• Shock
• Sepsis
• Neurologic disorders
• Mental health emergencies
• Endocrine/Metabolic disorders
• Environmental emergencies
• Infectious disease
• Abdominal disorders
• Women’s health emergencies
• Toxicological emergencies

Mental Health Resilience Officer

• Provider Course: 16-hour course appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and physicians. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card recognizing them as AMLS providers for 4 years, and 16 hours of CAPCE credit. This course may be offered as a classroom course, or a hybrid course where students take 8 hours of the course online followed by 8 hours in the classroom.
  • Online Modules: 8-hour online module that covers the didactic portion of the course. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.
• Refresher Course:  8-hour course for individuals who have successfully completed the 16-hour AMLS provider course within the past four years. A current AMLS provider certificate or wallet card is required. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

The Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) course focuses on critical pediatric physiology, illnesses, injuries and interventions to help EMS practitioners provide the best treatment for sick and injured children in the field.  The course stresses critical thinking skills to help practitioners make the best decisions for their young patients.

Topics covered include:

• The pathophysiology of the most common critical pediatric emergency issues, and critical thinking skills to help practitioners make the best decisions for their patients
• Application of the Pediatric Assessment Triangle (PAT), a tool to help EMS practitioners rapidly and accurately assess pediatric patients
• The importance of family-centered care
• Understanding and communicating with children
• Airway management, breathing, and oxygenation
• Cardiac emergencies
• Recognizing child abuse and neglect
• Hypoperfusion and shock
• Newborn resuscitation

EPC is appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, emergency medical responders, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians. EPC is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.

EPC is offered in the following formats:

• Provider Course: 16-hour course for EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physician assistants, and physicians.  This course may be offered as a classroom course, or a hybrid course where students take 8 hours of course content online followed by 8 hours in the classroom. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion,  a wallet card recognizing them as EPC providers for 4 years, and 16 hours of CAPCE credit.
  • Online Module: 8-hour online module that covers the didactic portion of the EPC course. Upon successful completion of the module, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.
• Refresher Course:  8-hour course for individuals who have successfully completed the 16-hour EPC or PEPP provider course within the past four years. Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a certificate of completion and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

NAEMT’s Geriatric Education for EMS course prepares prehospital practitioners to respond to, assess, and care for this fast-growing patient population. This third edition of the course strengthens and enhances practitioners’ ability to provide the best care for older adults in every community.

The GEMS course helps EMS practitioners learn to conduct a comprehensive assessment of geriatric patients. Be­cause the aging process affects all body systems, NAEMT’s course provides an overview of changes that occur as people age and describes how those changes can impact patient pre­sentation.  Incorporation of the GEMS Diamond (Geriatric, Environmental, Medical, and Social assessments) can help practitioners formulate a holistic diagnostic and treatment approach.

The third edition of GEMS addresses the following topics:

• Changes with age and assessment of the older patient
• Polypharmacy and Toxicity in Older Patients
• Respiratory Emergencies
• Cardiovascular Emergencies
• Trauma
• Other Medical Disorders
• Neurologic Emergencies
• Elder Maltreatment and Psychosocial Emergencies
• End-of-Life and Palliative Care
• Disaster Triage and Transporting Older Patients
• Left Ventricular Assist Devices
• Skin Disorders
• Ventilators
• Urinary Catheter and Colostomy Bag Care
• Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators

The 8-hour course is appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, emergency medical responders, nurses, physician assistants and physicians. GEMS is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT

First on the Scene (FOTS), developed by NAEMT and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), teaches the general public basic emergency response to life-threatening emergencies until EMS arrives on the scene. Through lesson presentations and hands-on skill stations, participants will learn how to access help in the event of a life-threatening emergency and what to do until EMS arrives. 

This course covers:

• Activating the 911 system
• Hands-only CPR and AED
• Administering naloxone
• Administering epinephrine
• Responding to life-threatening bleeding
• Penetrating chest trauma
• Moving patients to safety
• Positioning injured patients

FOTS is offered as an in-person course and is appropriate for anyone in the general public.

Refresher courses help EMS practitioners efficiently, conveniently, and effectively meet today’s continuing education requirements. Refreshers for Paramedics, Advanced EMTs, and EMTs can be taught in a classroom or virtually.

Refresher courses are built from the latest editions of NAEMT’s globally recognized courses to fulfill the national component of the National Registry’s recertification requirements, in accordance with the National Continued Competency program (NCCP). Each Refresher course meets the NREMT requirements for each training level:

• Paramedic Refresher: 30 hours
• EMT Refresher: 20 hours