Paramedic student adherence to the National Standard Curriculum recommendations.

Objectives: The National Standard Curriculum-Paramedic (NSC-P) is the accepted curriculum for paramedic programs across the country. The purpose of this study was to examine the completion of the NSC-P clinical internship recommendations by paramedic students.

Methods: Paramedic student internship experience data from 2001 to 2005 was retrospectively reviewed from FISDAPtrade mark. Student records that met the following inclusion criteria were analyzed: 1) student provided consent for research, 2) data verified by a preceptor, and 3) student successfully graduated from their paramedic program. The data were descriptively evaluated to determine the number of students who completed 100% of the NSC-P recommendations, to determine what percentage of students were completing each category, and to determine the average number of tasks completed by students for each recommendation.

Results: Of the 1,817 student records that met the inclusion criteria, 140 (7.7%) completed 100% of the NSC-P recommended goals in each category. Students met or exceeded the recommended number of tasks most often for 15 medication administrations (92%), 25 successful IV accesses (88%), 30 geriatric assessments (63.7%), 5 live endotracheal intubations (63.5%), and 50 adult assessments (63.2%). A majority of PS are completing less than 50% of the NCS-P recommendations for 20 ventilations on an un-intubated patient, 20 psychiatric patient assessments, 8 pediatric respiratory distress assessments, and 10 obstetric patient assessments.

Conclusion: A vast majority of paramedic students are not completing all of the NSC-P recommendations. The reasons for this shortcoming are likely multifaceted and require further research.