Emergency Medical Dispatcher - Training

Training

Training for EMDs is required to meet a National Standard Curriculum, as outlined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the U.S. government. This training program may be offered by private companies, by community colleges, or by some large EMS systems which are self-dispatching. The minimum length of such training is 32 classroom hours, covering such topics as EMD Roles and Responsibilities, Legal and Liability Issues in EMD, National and State Standards for EMD, Resource Allocation, Layout and Structure of EMD Guidecards, Obtaining Information from Callers, Anatomy and Physiology, Chief Complaint Types, Quality Assurance & Recertification and Stress Management. Certification in CPR is not mandatory, but upon completion of the training, students are required to sit a certification examination. Upon completion of the training and certification, Emergency Medical Dispatchers are required to complete 24 hours of Continuing Dispatch Education every two years, in order to maintain certification. This level of training and certification only satisfies the national curriculum, and in most cases, additional training will be required. Additional training will have a local focus, and will deal with local geographical knowledge, dispatch procedures, local laws and service policy. Additional training may be required to orient new emergency medical dispatchers to different forms of 9-1-1 telecommunication (if this will be a part of their job function). This may also include (depending on the jurisdiction) EFD (Emergency Fire Dispatching), EPD (Emergency Police Dispatching), ETC (emergency telecommunication), ECE (Executive Certification Course), CMC (Communication Center Manager), when such services are jointly operated. Similar courses are also generally available in Law Enforcement Dispatch (LED), Fire Service Dispatch (FSD), and Public Safety Dispatch (PSD), designed for those working in a multi-agency 9-1-1 call center that handles police, fire and EMS dispatching.

Additional local training is likely to be required for the actual skill of dispatching. This may involve extensive 'drilling' on local geography, for example. Large dispatch centres also tend to train staff in a graduated manner. Some of the more sophisticated EMS systems might actually have a teaching 'lab' complete with dispatch consoles, where the trainees can practice dealing with simulated calls, using exactly the same technologies that would be present in a real call centre. In other cases, or in addition to this 'lab' work in many cases, a graduated process of introduction and mentoring is used to develop an EMD. This generally involves supervised introduction of tasks, from the lowest priority and least stressful, to the highest priority and most stressful. A typical pattern might begin with the candidate performing call reception, then progressing to the actual dispatching of non-emergency transfers, dispatching emergency calls during periods of low volume, dispatching emergency calls at periods of high volume, and so on. In high performance systems, the path to being left alone to run an emergency dispatch console during high volume periods may take months to travel. Some EMS dispatch centres also have designated Communications Training Officers, who are the only people permitted to train or mentor new EMD candidates.

Following the murder of Denise Amber Lee in 2008, new laws are being considered in the State of Florida regarding the training of all public safety telecommunicators including EMDs. One of the 9-1-1 calls relating to her abduction was allegedly mishandled.