Field and Clinical Requirements for EMT Programs (T‐1445)
State and regional Medical Directors have reiterated, as late as August 12, 2020, the importance of students in initial certification programs successfully completing and meeting all field and clinical requirements as specified for all certification programs.
According to the NEMSES, the student should participate in and document patient contacts in a field experience in an ambulance, mobile health care experience, or simulated environment when ambulance experience is not available as approved by the medical director and program director. This may occur in an ambulance, ambulance experience, or simulated environment when ambulance experiences are not available.
Educators and Program Directors should think out of the box when developing field/clinical experiences for their EMT students. These experiences can be achieved in a variety of ways. Some examples include:
- the local Health Department
- local doctors’ offices
- nursing homes
- sports physical days at the local high school
- local blood drives
- fairs, carnivals or other community events where blood pressure and glucose checks could be done.
It will take time and effort to set up these sites, but the relationships you build in the community can be invaluable on a number of fronts.
EMT Field/clinical requirements can be found on the OEMS website at: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/emergency-medical-services/education-certification/educator-resources/2021-national-ems-education-standards-rollout/emt-field-clinical-requirements-for-2021-nemses/
If an educator or Program Director has exhausted all possibilities for field and clinical sites for their students and they are unable to secure sites, then the educator or Program Director shall:
- Secure an attestation statement from each site indicating that they will not allow access to their facility for your students.
- The attestation statement must include signatures (physical or electronic) from the educator, the field or clinical site representative and the program Medical Director.
- A sample attestation statement can be found here:
- COVID-19 Attestation Statement https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/23/2020/08/TR-901-Field-Clinical-Attestation-Statement-Electronic-Signature-8-17-20.pdf
- Generic Attestation Statement https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/23/2022/03/TR-901A-Field-Clinical-Attestation-Statement-3-4-22-Fillable.pdf
- Once attestation statements have been received for all sites, the educator or Program Director can then allow field and/or clinical competencies to be conducted with the students using programmed patients and/or advanced simulation scenarios until you are comfortable that the student is satisfactorily competent.
Attestation statements are required to be maintained by the educator with their course files
The following documents are being provided to assist educators with understanding and meeting the Virginia requirements for field/clinical contacts at the EMergecny Medical Technician (EMT) certification level.