Paramedic training standards high

Orange County Fire Rescue Lt. A.J. Lopez said he’s often asked why medics in his department must go through such rigorous training and so many tests — eight in total — “before they can even ride in the truck.” He said the answer is personal. “It sounds like a lot, but when it’s your family member [who is the patient], it’s not silly,” Lopez said. “We don’t want to have a brand new paramedic with patients who doesn’t know our protocol.”

A problem with those rigorous requirements came when incoming paramedics test passage rates were averaging a “dismal” 12 percent in the early 2000s, according to the OCFR. To bridge the gap, the department created a program that has had dramatic results to get incoming paramedics on the job faster. First-time pass rates jumped to 60 percent in 2016, according to Fire Rescue. This year, OCFR Chief Otto Drozd III said pass rates climbed even more, to more than 80 percent.

“Our department really exploded in 2002. We really ramped up and increased station personnel,” Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Dustin Pierce said. “When we saw the low passing rate, we started to get the ball rolling.”

The standards are high — Fire Rescue doesn’t just take paramedics after they’ve passed their school final exam and state licensing test. Applicants must take a pretest before they’re hired, shadow an experienced paramedic who acts as a mentor for 240 hours, then take two written exams and a hands-on practical exam. Finally, they take two more tests under the county medical director, Lopez said.

“With the baby boomers retiring, there are a lot of new entrants into the service,” Drozd said. “We needed a program to really teach the teachers of our new paramedics all those things we want to identify that are critical in the field.”

The Paramedic Preceptor Academy is a weeklong course for EMS mentors taught by Orange County healthcare experts from neurosurgeons to obstetricians to