Education FAQs

You will find a listing of courses here on the NAEMT web site. Click here to see the listing. Once you find the course you want to attend, click on view details and view the contact information for that course.

NAEMT offers two programs in a hybrid form that combines online instruction with a hands-on skills day: EPC and PHTLS. The format is eight hours of online instruction and eight hours of classroom time. To learn more and sign up, contact the course coordinator of the program of interest.

To learn the prices of NAEMT programs you would like to attend, contact the course coordinator for that program. If you do not have the course coordinator's contact information, contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368 or education@naemt.org.

The length of recognition for NAEMT courses is four years, and all programs are accredited by the Continuing Education Coordinating Board for Emergency Medical Services (CECBEMS).

An course for advanced providers is open to all advanced EMS providers, nurses and physicians.

A course for combined providers is open to all advanced EMS providers, nurses, basics, first responders and physicians. This is basic and advanced together.

A course for basic providers is open to first responders and EMT basics.

Instructor courses for these programs are offered for those who have successfully completed one of the NAEMT provider courses. The instructor courses train instructor candidates for conducting provider and refresher courses on the latest educational philosophies and techniques. Individuals selected to attend typically are experienced NAEMT instructors or coordinators. Eligible participants are those who have successfully completed the provider course for the program with a minimum passing score as defined for the course on the written test(s), and the recommendation of the course coordinator. Instructors must:

- Attend the entire course;

- Have achieved a minimum passing score for the course on the written provider post-test(s);

- Understand the program concepts and philosophies;

- Have knowledge and clinical experience relevant to the assigned lectures and/or skill stations;

- Teach at least one program per year within the four-year recognition period;

- Remain an instructor in good standing;

- Attend all instructor updates, as REQUIRED;

- Advise NAEMT of current contact information.

Requirements to become an EMS Safety course instructor are:

- Complete the eight-hour provider course, scoring at least 76% on the final exam

- Be already certified as an instructor in AMLS, PHTLS, EPC, ITLS, ACLS, PALS, PEPP, EVOC, Fire Instructor I, or currently teaching EMS curriculum at an accredited college or university

- Understand the program concepts and philosophies

- Have knowledge and experience relevant to assigned lectures

- Teach at least one program per year within the three year recognition period

- Remain an instructor in good standing;

- Attend all instructor updates, as REQUIRED;

- Advise NAEMT of current contact information.

Please talk with your course coordinator if you are interested in becoming an EMS Safety course instructor.

The Tactical Casualty Combat Care (TCCC) course is designed for military personnel who are preparing to deploy in support of combat operations. Instructors must:

- Currently be at a PHTLS training site;

- Be a current PHTLS instructor;

- Have participated in a 16-hour TCCC provider course;

- Provide a letter of recommendation from your previous TCCC instructor;

- Be an instructor in good standing with NAEMT;

- Understand the program concepts and philosophies.

Please talk with your course coordinator if you are interested in becoming a TCCC course instructor.

NAEMT instructor recognitions are awarded for four years, with the provision that the instructor fulfill all terms contained within the instructor roles and responsibilities. Every four years, a current instructor must take a mandatory instructor update. The instructor update is a workshop designed to orient current instructors, course coordinators, and affiliate faculty to all aspects of new edition text materials, amended program formats, and administrative changes.

To become an affiliate faculty you must be appointed by your regional or state coordinator, have a verifiable history of successful NAEMT programs, current instructor/coordinator status, and provide a letter of recommendation from a state coordinator, medical director, or affiliate faculty who has personal knowledge of your suitability for the role.

To find affiliate faculty listed in your state, contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368 or education@naemt.org for a current listing.

Course coordinators are experienced instructors who have been approved to serve as a course coordinator by an affiliate faculty and/or regional/state coordinator for the respective NAEMT education program. To become a course coordinator you must:

- Have knowledge and experience in coordinating EMS programs;

- Have knowledge of the process required to assemble and meet all course logistical requirements;

- Understand the program concepts and philosophies;

- Have knowledge and clinical experience relevant to all lectures and/or skill stations;

- Have successfully completed the instructor course;

- Advise NAEMT of current contact information;

- Have current instructor status in good standing with NAEMT;

- Submit a copy of a current instructor certificate or card from the program you are interested in teaching;

- Have a course history with NAEMT;

- Submit a letter of recommendation from the monitoring affiliate or state coordinator.

Regional coordinators are individuals appointed by the course committee chair to oversee state/provincial coordinators and all program activities within an assigned area. To become a regional coordinator you must:

- Hold current membership in NAEMT;

- Have a verifiable history of support for the NAEMT programs;

- Have the administrative/clerical support to function as regional coordinator;

- Submit a CV outlining education and work experience;

- Have a course history with NAEMT;

- Submit a letter of recommendation from the previous coordinator, medical director, or person with personal knowledge of candidate's suitability for the role;

- Submit a letter of disclosure, citing any potential conflict of interests.

To find out who your regional coordinator is, contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368 or at education@naemt.org.

State coordinators are program instructors who are appointed by the course committee chair upon recommendation by the regional coordinator. The state coordinator is responsible for maintaining all administrative and quality assurance in an assigned state. This position is reviewed annually by the education program committee in conjunction with re-appointment. To become a state coordinator, you must:

- Hold current membership in NAEMT;
- Have a history of support for the NAEMT education program at a minimum level of instructor/coordinator, preferably affiliate faculty;
- Provide a letter of recommendation from the previous state coordinator, medical director or other who has personal knowledge of your suitability for the role;
- Not hold a leadership position with a competing education program or have any competing interest, financial or otherwise; 
- Provide a letter of disclosure, citing any potential conflicts of interest.

If changes have taken place at your training site, you may e-mail education@naemt.org with the new information. Please include your site number in the e-mail. Changes are updated within 24 business hours.

To become a new training site, first contact your affiliate faculty, state coordinator, or regional coordinator and inform them that your site is interested in holding NAEMT educational programs. A training site must provide classroom facilities appropriate to the number of students attending. Classrooms should be well lit and comfortable, with adequate space for lectures, skills stations, and scenarios.

To obtain a duplicate copy of your certificate and wallet card, contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368. You will need to give your name or course number for the program that you attended.

All course pre- and post-tests are sent from NAEMT to the course coordinator of the program. If you would like a copy of the test, please contact the course coordinator directly.

You can order NAEMT merchandise at www.emergencystuff.com and click on Organization Stores, or call it at 1-800-367-0382. NAEMT does not directly offer any merchandise. 

To order your provider books, click here or contact the bookstore at 1-800-367-0382. For AMLS and PHTLS provider books, you also may contact the publisher, Jones and Bartlett, at 1-800-832-0034.

Students cannot pay for their classes online. Students will need to contact their course coordinator for payment arrangements.

Any individuals who have successfully completed a NAEMT program within the four years prior to the refresher course, and can provide a current NAEMT provider card as record to the hosting facility, may take a refresher course. If your provider card has expired after the four year period, you will need to take the 16-hour provider course.

Mail all course payments ONLY to P.O. Box 8539, Columbus, MS 39705. Mail all paperwork and correspondence to P.O. Box 1400, Clinton, MS 39060.

Find the TCCC curriculum here.

Yes, you still will need an affiliate faculty to approve your first time coordinating NAEMT programs. After approval from your affiliate faculty, you can coordinate NAEMT programs without an affiliate faculty for future courses.

To become a military instructor or course coordinator for NAEMT programs, you will need to contact an affiliate faculty for the military. Please contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368 or education@naemt.org for this information.

NAEMT's Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS) addresses how to fully assess and manage the most common medical crises in patients, offering a "think outside the box" methodology and emphasizing scene size-up, history, interactive group discussion on potential treatment strategies, and physical exam to systematically rule out and consider differential diagnoses. AMLS is endorsed by the National Association of EMS Physicians and is for all levels of healthcare practitioners committed to providing quality care for patients in medical crisis. The AMLS provider course is a two-day, 16-hour in-depth study of medical emergencies for the adult patient emphasizing a pragmatic approach and sytematic format regarding patient assessment and management. The course is designed to combine interactive scenario-based lectures with hands-on physical skills practice and assessment. Course participants practice a global and initial assessment, taking into account the patient's environmental and scene issues.

Learn more about AMLS courses here.

The hands-on AMLS course encourages each participant to integrate the knowledge and techniques presented into a practical format for use in his or her current practice. Participants learn to:

- Apply critical thinking skills to integrate pathophysiology with the assessment findings of a medical patient;

- Determine and differentiate between actual and potential patient problems;

- Conduct a medical examination that utilizes proper diagnostic skills, critical thinking and interventions;

- Advance the provider's ability to utilize problem-solving strategies in interventions and management alternatives;

- Communicate the pertinent findings and interventions to the receiving faculty;

- Systematically work through a patient assessment and examine the possibilities and probabilities of differential diagnoses.

Because AMLS is an advanced course that assumes a previous working knowledge of medical emergencies, there are necessary prerequisites. Course participation is open to all providers with at least one year of clinical experience. This is an advanced level course and as such the student must be academically and clinically prepared for a rapid-paced and thought-provoking class. Participants need to have the base knowledge and experience on which the AMLS course will build. To successfully prepare for the course, students must read the text prior to course commencement and come to class prepared.

The AMLS instructor course is offered in the form of a four-hour workshop, which can be added on to any AMLS provider course with prior approval. The AMLS instructor/provider card is valid for four years.

Recognized as the world’s premier program for prehospital emergency trauma care, offers a unique approach to trauma care, promoting critical thinking and addressing multi-system trauma for the best patient care. PHTLS was developed in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.

The community. The PHTLS course provides an opportunity to improve mortality and morbidity rates and the quality of trauma care in your area.

Students. Students in the PHTLS course get a quality education in trauma with a focus on critical thinking.

Instructors. PHTLS instructors receive an array of support - including the support of an integrated, worldwide network of PHTLS coordinators and the most up-to-date instructor materials.

Hospital staff. The PHTLS course helps bridge the gap from the field to the hospital by creating a shared learning experience in an environment of mutual respect for EMTs, nurses and physicians.

 

 

PHTLS picks up where other educational programs leave off. The course focuses on how to identify, manage, and transport trauma patients in the prehospital environment with the highest level of care and give them the greatest chance of survival.

 

In 1979, care of trauma patients took a giant step forward with the inauguration of the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. The first chairman of the ATLS ad hoc committee for the American College of Surgeons and chairman of the Prehospital Care Subcommittee on Trauma for the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Norman E. McSwain, Jr. FACS, knew that what they had begun would have a profound effect on the outcome of trauma patients. Moreover, he had a strong sense that an even greater effect could come from bringing this type of critical training to prehospital care providers.

Dr. McSwain, a founding member of the board of directors of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians ( NAEMT), gained support of the Association's president at the time, Gary Labeau, and began to lay plans for a prehospital version of ATLS. President Labeau directed Dr.McSwain and Robert Nelson, NREMT-P, to determine the feasibility of an ATLS-type program for prehospital care providers. As a professor of surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana , Dr. McSwain gained the University's support in putting together the draft curriculum of what was to become Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS). With this draft in place, in 1983, a PHTLS committee was established. This committee continued to refine the curriculum, and later that same year, pilot courses were conducted at Tulane; Marian Health Center in Sioux City, Iowa; Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut; and Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Tulane also hosted the first National Faculty course in early 1984. This was followed in the summer of 1984 by a course in Denver, Colorado. The graduates of these early courses formed what would be the " Barnstormers," PHTLS national and regional faculty members who traveled the country training more faculty members, spreading the word that PHTLS had arrived.

Early courses focused on advance life support (ALS). In 1986, a course that encompassed basic life support (BLS) was developed. The course grew exponentially. Beginning with those first few enthusiastic faculty members , first dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands of providers annually participate in PHTLS courses all over the world.

As the course grew, the PHTLS committee became a division of NAEMT. Course demand and the need to maintain course continuity and quality necessitated the building of networks of affiliate, state, regional, and national faculty members. There are national coordinators for every country, and in each country there are regional and state coordinators along with affiliate faculty members to make sure that information is disseminated and courses are consistent whether you participate in a program in Chicago Heights, Illinois, or Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Throughout the growth process, medical direction has been provided by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. For nearly 20 years the partnership between the American College of Surgeons and NAEMT has ensured that course participants are given the opportunity to give trauma patients everywhere their best chance at survival.

 

PHTLS in the Military

Beginning in 1988, the U.S. military aggressively set out to train its medics in PHTLS, coordinated by DMRT, the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute, at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. PHTLS is taught all over the United States, Europe, and Asia and anywhere the flags of the U.S. Military fly. In 2001, the Army's 91WB program standardized the training of over 58,000 Army medics to include PHTLS.

The participation of the US military in the program includes providing a chapter to cover the particular needs of the military and provide information on tactical medicine that is of interest to any population in the modern world.

 

International PHTLS

The sound prehospital trauma management emphasized in the PHTLS course led to prehospital care providers and physicians outside of the United States to request the program in their various countries, assisted by ATLS faculty members presenting ATLS courses worldwide. This network provides medical direction and course continuity.

As PHTLS has moved across the United States and around the globe, we have been struck by the differences in our cultures and climates and also by the similarities of the people who devote their lives to caring for the sick and injured. All of us who have been blessed with the opportunity to teach overseas have experienced the fellowship with our international partners and know that we are all one people in pursuit of caring for those who need care the most.

View the nations in the growing PHTLS family here. 

The PHTLS provider course is the "core" course of PHTLS instruction. It is designed to provide the prehospital provider with knowledge and skills for the prehospital assessment and care of the trauma patient. Recognition of successful completion is for four years, and the provider course offers 16 hours of CEUs.

The PHTLS refresher course is designed to be a one-day workshop to update providers on the latest PHTLS philosophies and techniques. Recognition of successful completion is for four years, and the refresher course offers eight hours of CEUs.

The PHTLS instructor course is designed to train instructor candidates for conducting provider and refresher courses. To maintain current instructor status, an instructor must teach a minimum of one program per year. Recognition of successful completion is for four years, and the instructor course offers eight hours of CEUs.

Contact Will Chapleau for information on how to develop new PHTLS coordinator sites.

Emergency Pediatric Care (EPC) provides an advanced and in-depth scientific approach to the emergency care of sick and injured pediatric patients, offering techniques that can help EMS practitioners rapidly and accurately assess life-threatening situations using the Pediatric Assessment Triangle (PAT). The course gives students a practical understanding of respiratory, cardiovascular, medical and traumatic emergencies in pediatric patients. The program incorporates Family Centered Care throughout all scenarios, and includes a component on caring for children with special needs.

The EPC provider course is a 16-hour program that allows providers at all levels to understand the information and the skills that are part of the spectrum of prehospital pediatric patient care. It fosters ALS and BLS teamwork as it should occur in the actual care of patients and it provides BLS and ALS providers alike with a review of the fundamental skills and knowledge needed to care for a child.

The EPC basic course is an eight-hour program designed for providers whose time constraints may not allow them to take the EPC provider course, but who still wish to participate in a program to improve their care of children. This format covers all fundamental knowledge and BLS skills a provider would need to help a sick or injured child.

The EPC refresher program is designed to review the provider's knowledge of the material contained in the EPC provider course. While it is always acceptable for a provider to keep their certification current by attending the original provider course, any currently certified provider may instead attend the four-hour refresher program.

The EPC instructor course is a 4-8 hour course that is open to potential instructor candidates. The course conatains two modules, educational concepts and EPC-specific material. The determination of meeting the requirement as a currently certified EMS or CME instructor is made by the course coordinator for the EPC instructor course.

The EPC hybrid course combines eight hours of online didactics with eight hours of face-to-face interactive stations. This modular course format can fulfill the pediatric clinical and educational needs of an EMS agency while minimizing budgetary and logistical impacts.

EPC participants learn:

- Application of the Pediatric Assessment Triangle (PAT)

- Family Centered Care

- Assessment skills for pediatric patients

- Critical thinking skills

- Transport decision-making

- Physiological and developmental stages of childhood

- Course lectures and interactive sessions that address assessment; airway, breathing and circulation; understanding and caring for children; hypoperfusion and shock; cardiac emergencies and congenital cardiac defects; common medical emergencies; trauma; newborn resuscitation; vascular access; care team management; spinal motion restriction; children with special needs; identification of life threats; scene choreography; and child abuse and neglect.

All EMS practitioners who care for ill or injured children should take an EPC course. Typical participants include paramedics, advanced emergency medical technicians, emergency medical technicians, emergency medical responders and other professionals working in
prehospital emergency medicine. Physicians, nurses, physician assistants and other healthcare professionals who care for children and work with prehospital care providers also are encouraged to attend.

Instructors who are NOT ACTIVE will need to go through an instructor course. Locate an instructor course here.    

For instructors who are ACTIVE in teaching and desire a new instructor card, the course coordinator will need to place their name on the student roster of the instructor course they have recently taught. The course coordinator will print out their card and collect a fee of $10. The card then will reflect a new course number with a new four-year expiration date.

 

 

If your provider card has expired after the four-year period, you will need to retake the provider course again. If your provider card is near expiring, you will need to take the refresher course of the program for which your card is expiring.   

If your card is missing, you will need to contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368 or education@naemt.org to obtain a duplicate copy of your card.

Submit your course rosters here. Simply click on "course registration" and then click on the course roster link. You will need your course number, site ID number and your password to go further. If you need assistance, please contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368.

From instructors and course coordinators, NAEMT accepts checks, money orders, purchase orders and all major credit cards except Discover. Credit card payments are accepted online here. Payments by checks and money orders are to be sent to the following address: NAEMT, P.O Box 8539, Columbus, MS 39705 

Please note: Students cannot pay online. Only instructors/course coordinators may pay for their courses online.

To register a course or to become a course coordinator, you must:

- First take a provider and instructor course. 

- Then download and take the course coordinator quiz and submit it to your state coordinator.

- Once approved by the state coordinator, contact an affiliate faculty in your state to let them know you are interested in becoming a course coordinator (see listing of affiliates here.)

- The affiliate faculty will monitor you when it's your first time coordinating a NAEMT course and will walk you through the process.

- After your first course is completed, with approval from the affiliate faculty, you are ready to start coordinating or registering courses on your own.

Payments and rosters are due 30 days after the course completion date listed by the course coordinator on the application.

You can find course materials in pdf format in the course administration center. You will find the participant registration form, monitoring form, instructor roster form, and all other forms you would need.

To change your site identification information, please contact NAEMT at 1-800-346-2368.

Instructor rosters are entered on the instructor roster form and mailed or faxed to NAEMT. The NAEMT fax number is 601-924-7325, or mail the roster to P.O. Box 1400, Clinton, MS 39056.