NREMT Board votes to require paramedic accreditation

National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On November 13-14, 2007, the National Registry of EMTs Board of Directors voted to require that applicants for national Paramedic certification graduate from a nationally accredited educational program after December 31, 2012. 

The motion was introduced in June 2007 and tabled to enable consultation with other members of the EMS community. Following discussions with other national EMS organizations, the board passed the motion unanimously on November 14, 2007. The rationale for the change is based on the recommendations in the EMS Education Agenda for the Future: A Systems Approach as well as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report titled Emergency Medical Services at the Crossroads.  These two publications call for a linkage of paramedic educational program accreditation with eligibility for certification.

Currently, fourteen states require national accreditation of paramedic education programs and, there are over 240 nationally accredited programs. Most experts believe that this represents about one-half to one-third of the active paramedic education programs in the country. "The CoAEMSP is committed to helping programs understand and meet the standards and guidelines for accreditation," stated Randy Kuykendall, the current Chairman of the Committee on Accreditation for EMS Educational Programs (CoAEMSP).

William E. Brown, Jr., NREMT Executive Director said "We believe that the major barrier to achieving accreditation will be institutional support. We hope that this policy provides paramedic program directors with the leverage to get the same resources as other allied health education programs. There is simply no reason why any quality program cannot achieve accreditation in the next five years." 

Another concern is the number of paramedic programs that are in "non-traditional" educational settings. Dr. George Hatch, CoAEMSP Executive Director, stated "We currently have accredited programs in all types of locations and institutions. The CoAEMSP has a variety of mechanisms to meet the sponsorship requirements. Virtually any type program, including proprietary and agency based, can meet the sponsorship standard through seeking independent institutional accreditation or collaborating with other organizations to form a consortium."

While the EMS Education Agenda for the Future calls for educational accreditation for all levels of EMS personnel, the IOM report recommends requiring accreditation only at the paramedic level. The NREMT motion affects only paramedic eligibility.  Jimm Murray, NREMT Vice-Chairman (of the Board of Directors) concludes that "the current evidence supports requiring accreditation at the paramedic level. We may revisit the issue of accreditation at other levels at a later date."

"This is an important step forward for the discipline of paramedicine," concluded Sandy Bogucki, MD, PhD and Chairman of the NREMT Board of Directors. "Every occupational group that has evolved and gained credibility as a profession has done so through strengthening their educational and credentialing systems. We know that this change will be a challenge, but the Board feels confident that accreditation will improve paramedic education and ultimately the quality of care that patients receive in the out of hospital setting."

Copyright © 2007 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.