Leveraging Prior Learning (Feat. Dr. Michael Miller)

Are you maximizing the educational and professional experiences you already possess?

In this episode of Registry Insider, host Bill Seifarth sits down with Dr. Michael Miller, the Associate Director from the Committee on Accreditation for EMS Programs. Together, they dispel common myths surrounding the advanced placement process and discuss how educational programs can utilize credit for prior learning. 

The discussion highlights how this advanced placement process benefits a diverse range of candidates, from transitioning domestic healthcare professionals, such as registered nurses, to international EMS personnel looking to practice in the United States. While building a custom curriculum presents initial operational challenges for program faculty, it serves as a vital tool to address ongoing workforce shortages and support the professional growth of every future Clinician.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to the Richie Insider. I'm Bill Seiferth from the National Registry of EMTs, and we are filming today from a CreditCon down in New Orleans, Louisiana. And today's topic for our episode is leveraging prior learning credit with advanced placement process. And joining me is the legendary Dr. Mike Miller, who is associate director from the CoAMSP. So, Mike, thanks again for joining me for another episode on Registry Insider. Absolutely a pleasure to be with you, Bill. Thanks for coming to a credit card. So earlier today, you presented on the topic of leveraging prior learning towards the advanced, prior learning credit, I should say, towards advanced placement process. Let's start by talking about, for people who may not know about it, what is advanced placement process and how does it work? And then we'll get kind of into the nuts and bolts of it afterward.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, thanks. So advanced placement or credit for prior learning, terms oftentimes used interchangeably. It's not anything new from a higher education perspective, right? It's around for a lot of different professions. It's something that I think is taking a little bit of time to gain some traction for EMS education programs, paramedic programs in particular, but it has been around there for 25, 30 years as well, just not probably commonplace for a lot of programs. What it really is when you boil it all down is recognizing that there are people that have other life skills, education that they've completed, experiences that they've gained, where they've applied that education that can be recognized and applied toward becoming an EMS professional as well. And so it's being intentional about trusting but verifying that information that somebody presents with and being able to give them credit toward a component or portion of an educational program so that they don't have to do the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, so it makes it somewhat of a more efficient process for the student to ultimately gain paramedic or advanced ENT or ENT, whatever the situation may be. I know in my previous role when I was as a state official, we had a lot of nurses that were going through the process to become ENT and paramedic. And at the state level, we were able to review their experience and then, as you said, trust but verify, have them obtain the requisite um skills or clinical experiences so that they meet the same standard and same um equivalent at it as an ENT student or in this case as a paramedic student. And then they were able to, once they get the education, sit for the examination to ensure that they're competent.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

That's right. And it's really what it boils down to is looking at the audience that you want to work with, that you are identifying as candidates for an advanced placement or prior learning credit type of pathway in identifying the gaps. What skills, knowledge, abilities does the person have coming into your program have that you can recognize and then identifying the gaps that they may not have, providing that education to them, but it becomes a more efficient process from a time monetary perspective, typically not just for the students, but for the program as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

So you may mention earlier when you were describing what the process is, that it's slow to take for action in the EMS, but it has been around for a while. To that end, you know, a lot of misinformation that I hear is, you know, we're not allowed to do that as a paramedic education program. Um and that's quite wrong. And it's just the opposite as far as what should be done or what could be done. Can you explain a little bit about that? Because that is a common rumor. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

So uh the KHAP, uh, who is the accreditor and the work that we do here at the committee on accreditation for EMS programs, we want programs, we all know, right, that there are workforce challenges that exist and they're only uh being amplified, it seems like, every day. Um this is not new, it's been around for a while, uh, and it is something that we want to encourage programs to examine and explore. It might not be a good fit for all programs, but programs can most certainly do this. Uh, we have uh in in the KHAP accreditation standards, in standard five about fair practices, specifically requires programs to have policies and procedures that they've developed around these topics. Um, three things are specifically addressed: advanced placement, credit for prior learning, as well as transfer credits. Programs are required in order to be accredited to have a policy. Some programs choose to develop policies that say, we're not gonna do any of this. Other programs have said, we're gonna decide and pick and choose what which of these things makes sense for us to do, which is their prerogative to do. And many are choosing to leverage those aspects of those policies to meet a need for people to educate them.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So again, programs can do advanced placement and how to save credit for prior learning, which is uh, I think hopefully a rumor that can be um uh dispelled based on this conversation. Some of the challenges, I think, as far as what I hear from programs, and you obviously deal with them more than I do, but they don't have the resources, they don't have the time or they don't have the people to actually sit down and review someone's experience and or do whatever work is involved to do that. But are there any other reasons why programs are choosing not to do it other than resources or are those the main- I think resource, I think resources is is a big component to it, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Um, oftentimes program directors, the faculty, the clinical coordinator, the other people that are involved in in the day-to-day operations of the program are already stretched thin. So this is adding to that. And you do have to be intentional about how you develop and design a curriculum in order to meet the specific audience that you're working with. If you are going to do this, you need to be intentional and recognize that depending upon the audience, it could become a one-size fits-all. This is not something that you can do unless you're working with students that are coming with similar backgrounds and experiences into the program. So there's a lot of operational factors that you have to consider. And it does take time to build out the curriculum to identify the gaps, to complete the gap analysis. But once it's there, it can be a time saver and become very efficient, and you can have a lot of success with it.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

And uh, and it's not really limited to um, you know, other healthcare providers that want to get into EMS. I mean, as we were talking before we started filming, the um there's a big desire for some international markets, in particular from Australia, to come into uh the United States. But they would go through an advanced placement process, they would get appropriate credit for prior learning, uh, and then be required to complete the gaps that they haven't previously received before they're eligible to sit for our exam.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah, that's right. So there's been a long, long history of working with various health professions, whether or not it's nursing, in some cases respiratory therapists, that there's a whole host of other audiences from a health perspective, even physicians that may have wanted to do advanced placement and become paramedics. Um, one of the new audiences that is certainly presenting um itself to the United States, and some of this is being driven by uh ambulance services that are recruiting from wherever they can find personnel in order to get them uh educated and credentialed in order to be able to take care of patients. But there is an international audience for that, where believe it or not, in some other countries, and I know your team at the National Russian is aware of this as well, in some countries, they have a surplus of personnel that it is challenging for them to find jobs. So there are some programs in the country that have specifically identified that and are working with. You mentioned Australia. There are probably some other countries out there as well, but Australia seems to be front and center right now. Uh, and while they have a very robust education system in place to educate their uh EMS personnel, it is not exactly the same as the educational standards and guidelines that we adhere to here in the United States. So there are gaps. There are also cultural challenges that I've heard from other programs that need to be addressed. Colloquialisms that we use in our society are a bit different than other parts of the world. So you gotta be considering those kinds of things as well. Uh, but a gap analysis can help you match up where uh we have similar educational strategies and content and where there are gaps that can then ultimately be addressed in order to be efficient in allowing those people to ultimately seek licensure certification uh in the United States with US credentials and become employee.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

So you mentioned it earlier, but I think it it's worth repeating. Where can people go to find out more details about advanced placement prior for uh credit for prior learning?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

There is a policy in the COAMSP policy and procedure manual that's publicly available on our website, talks about advanced placement uh in in appendix to appendix six in that particular document. It's fairly broad stroke, but it does provide some guidance and puts some guardrails around things that programs should consider when they're developing this. There is a recorded webinar as well that's on uh Advanced Placement Prior Learning Credit that's also available on our website free. It's about an hour-long conversation where we take a deep dive and talk about the topic and try to equip programs with the necessary considerations to think about if they want to offer such a program.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Excellent. Well, Mike, thank you for uh taking time to talk with me and certainly our audience about uh advanced placement, a lot of kind of misinformation or lack of information out there. So hopefully this gives some people um not only credible information, but also where they can go to to find resources out more about the process. Uh so thank you again. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank you as well for joining us, and as always, stay safe. Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you wouldn't mind, please click the like and subscribe buttons as well as the notifications so you can get notifications of upcoming episodes. Also, for the latest and greatest happenings of the National Registry, feel free to go to nramt.org. Thank you very much, and again, stay safe.