Meeting & Agendas

Committee goes around the table introducing themselves.

X. Dr. Kimbrough….. “Every year, when doing exit interviews for the program, the number one asset that the students cite are the Instructors… I have always felt that I have been an honored guest here… This part of my career has always been the highlight… Working here has been a real delight… I have no plans on stepping down anytime soon. I am afraid of what is going to happen to this program. We are all beset with budget problem, and other changes.” Dr. Kimbrough asked the committee what changes they see on the horizon so that the Austin Community College can prepare appropriately. He asked if the committee would like more, or even fewer paramedics in the near future. Rebecca Brock – We need more space. The initial college master plan tentatively put us into additional space this year and it has not happened yet. We told COA that we would have additional ‘digs’ in Round Rock by the time they come back. It does not appear that will happen. We are in dire need of additional lab space either here at Eastview Campus or elsewhere. This will be something that is on-going and we will look into all options in order to keep our operations running.

No New Topics From The Floor

Meeting Adjourned.

Rebecca Brock states that she wants to leave it up to the Committee to Nominate and elect the Chair and Co-Chair for the Committee, but that she would prefer someone that has been serving on the Committee for an extended period of time. Scott Swearengin - makes a motion to nominate Kenny Schnell for Chair and Johnny Campbell for Co-Chair. Dr. Kimbrough Seconds motion. Committee votes. All in Favor, to none opposed. Kenny Schnell is now Chair Johnny Campbell is now Co-Chair

a. In house and registry pass rates EMT- 124 students have taken the exam and we have a 100% pass rate; 70% is the national rate EMT-I 24 students took and passed the exam 100%; 70% is the national pass rate Paramedic – 28 students took and passed the exam 100% pass rate; 71% is the national average Steven Villavicencio - 2010 standards national standards were raised in EMT Basic. Exams were changed to reflect this.

ALS enrollment is right around 100 and should be close to 120 by Spring 2012. We will be graduating 11 students this Fall, and 19 more in the Spring of 2012.

a. Follow-up on Implementation of FISDAP Exit Test - We have implemented a new Prep National Registry Test using 75 as our cut score overall. Right now with the exception of 1 student, all are passing their National Registry Exam. Pauline VanMeurs b. Discipline Assessment for EMSP - College based, and is done for S.A.C.S. (Southern Association of Colleges). They have another internal review process. It is new to the college, but not to the department. The department is writing goals and objectives for the program. We will be evaluating and validating our goals. Becky will be working on the assessment calendar. We have until 2015 to evaluate in each class, each goal and objective. Pauline VanMeurs c. Curriculum Changes………………………………………….Rebecca Brock i. Name changes following the new Standard Guidelines- EMT/Basic to EMT; EMT-I to Advanced EMT (AEMT), EMT-Paramedic to Paramedic. Kenny Schnell makes a motion to approve these name changes. Johnny Campbell seconds the motion. Committee votes and approves. Changes will be submitted to the Texas Co-board for approval this month. ii. Changes in curriculum to accommodate AEMT requirements- EMSP 2137 is the skills course used while students are in their first clinical, this course keeps skills fresh and readies them for National Registry at what is currently the I-85 level. The skills are changing a bit in this class to accommodate the new Advanced EMT. We are adding skills, such as a pedi airway scenario, bolus medications (that use to be only a Paramedic skill) and some splinting stations. We will be changing some skills that were only formative to summative in the student’s first semester classes. And the initial Patient Assessment class will add a couple of skills to accommodate as well. In September the department went to the curriculum committee and added a half hour to the class/per session to allow time for the new skills. This was approved. The class will now be 1.5 hrs (3 hrs a week). The call letters to the course did not change. d. Skills…………………………………………………………...Rebecca Brock i. Replacement of Combi tube with King LT- the program would like to remove the combi tube from the inventory of skills that is taught and tested and teach and test only the King LT. This seems to be in-line with area protocols and the new AHA standards. Rebecca Brock requests permission from the Committee to approve this change. Kenny Schnell makes a motion to approve the change. Dr. Kimbrough seconds the motion. The committee votes all in favor, none opposed. Combi tube will be replaced with King LT. ii. One of the areas we have been teaching, but not spending a lot of time in is the external jugular IV cannulation. While it is considered a peripheral IV, there are certain added considerations to those we teach for IV’s of the extremities. We have the supplies to demonstrate, teach and test. We would like to have a discussion of the skills value with regard to time in the lab. Is this a skill area providers would like for us to teach/test prior to students exiting the program? Kenny Schnell makes a motion for Skill E.J. to be summative. Dr. Kimbrough seconds the motions. Pauline VanMeurs has a question - clarification, are we holding this for Paramedic only? Because it is not part of the scope for the A.E. They are limited to the I.O. Can this be summative for the EMSP 2260 course and up? Dr. Kimbrough approves this clarification. Vote is taken. All are in favor, none are opposed. The motion is passed. e. New Industry Standards/Practices Committee - Terri King \'\'we went to hip binders\'\' The committee will keep the ACC EMSP department informed as to any changes. Nothing new \'Practice wise\' in the E.R.\'s The main thing that is going on is increased awareness of violent patients. It is being debated on HOW to notify others that the patient is violent. Students should not go into a room alone. i. New equipment on the units? New SOC, or COGs f. Additions/Deletions in Medication Formularies………………………Committee

a. There has been an issue with our students being overlooked while at the ER. Is there any way that we can ensure that this does not happen in the future? b. Tim Lacy states that the advantage of nursing students in the ER as opposed to the EMS students is that Nursing students are assigned to a particular person. EMS students are not assigned to just one person. c. Eileen Klein – Austin area has a industry committee that has a scheduling system that includes ALL of our students going into clinicals. The aspect of scheduling is changing a lot. The guidelines are: 4 year schools, then associate degree school, and then all others. There is a lot of competition right now and the committee is meeting constantly in order to resolve some of these issues. Eileen is a part of this committee and is speaking on behalf of Health Science program for ACC. d. Becky Brock – It is time to start reaching out to some of the larger hospitals. Even to the point of reaching out to facilities that were once a \'closed door\'. e. Skills verification process - Robyn Richter. Please keep the department informed about any skills that you see our students are deficient in? f. Johnny Campbell - Austin Travis county, WILCO are involved in a process that is being worked on by Seton that will deal with communication between Paramedic students and Nurses. He will try to get our Department an invite when this committee meets again.

a. Interview process- Students in our EMSP 2237 are going through a Mock Interview training that is 5%0 of their final grade. Students are appearing more professional than in recent times past. b. What graduates are good at; and what they lack that the program can help facilitate. - ACC is putting out a great graduate. Professional and well trained. However, you cannot substitute for ‘no life experience’.

a. Annual Report i. Budget-New Resources-Two SimBaby manikins - $78,000 each b. Program Resource Survey- for the advisory committee – Please fill out survey and return after the meeting is adjourned. c. Internal Program Review Process i. Objective 1: Increase the number of EMS program graduates by 80% within 5 years. 1. EMT/B Research & SSI developments…….Pauline VanMeurs We do not require students to be TSI complete before entering our program. Instead, we have come up with our own set of testing requirements that best serves our program’s needs. Students who were under 21 that came into the EMT Class and were not testing complete, did NOT pass our EMT Basic course. We require EMT basic students to be college ready before they can enter our course now. We accept Compass scores and previous course work. We are compiling data to see if this change is for the better. ii. Objective 6: Increase the accessibility & accuracy of Departmental Policy The new site for instructors both full time and adjunct. William (Health Sciences IT) is working with Vance Kirkhuff and Peter Wheeler in developing this site. We are hoping that this will help with communication between all of our Adjunct and full time instructors. iii. Objective 3: 30% of courses will be offered through hybrid or distance Concentration currently on Research and Card Courses. EMSP 2352 – our research course will be offered first. iv. Objective 2: Increase satisfaction of EMS Employers with professionalism of EMSP graduates by measured changes in survey results. This is an SSI project as well. Terry King – is a part of a committee that would like to see a big change on the issue of professionalism. Most people would like to see it improve, but when it comes to actually implementing changes in programs, it has been hard to get any specific changes made.