Education for TAMECT Members

Here at Texas A&M Emergency Care Team, our members are provided with a great education program that assists with their training in becoming capable first responders to work alongside the EMTs of TAMU EMS. Our education program certifies our members with an American Heart Association certification in Basic Life Support for the Healthcare Provider (BLS HCP CPR). To become a full member, we require our members to take our courses: Introduction, BLS HCP CPR, Advanced First Aid I, Advanced First Aid II, and Clearing. Classes no longer have to be done in order with the exception of introduction being taken first .Below you will find descriptions of each of our courses.

Introduction

The first class our members are required to complete is our introduction class. This class includes HIPAA training and Bloodborne Pathogens training which are both required in any health setting. This class will also go over an EMT medic bag, taking vitals, and what is expected of you on a shift. As your first step in care team, this class will help you gain the skills needed to assist an EMT on shift.

Basic Life Support for the Healthcare Provider CPR AED

The second course our members are required to complete is a course that will provide a certification. American Heart Association Basic Life Support for Healthcare Provider CPR is a course that will train participants to promptly recognize several life-threatening emergencies, give high-quality chest compressions, deliver appropriate ventilations, and provide early use of an AED. This course will go over 1- and 2-rescuer adult/child/infant CPR AED use, team dynamics, the drug Naloxone, and choking emergencies in adults/children/infants. AHA BLS HCP CPR is a certification that is required for most medical certifications such as EMT-B, EMT-I, EMT-P, nursing, medical school, etc. The course fee is covered by membership dues.

Advanced First Aid I

The Advanced First Aid I (and Advanced First Aid II) course is a TAMECT made course that will teach our members basic TAMU EMS protocols and advanced first aid skills. In this particular course our members will learn: how to assess a patient’s mental status, how to obtain a basic medical history, a quick anatomy review, how to take 8 different vital signs and all special information related to these vital signs, a variety of medical emergencies and their respective treatments, and will learn about the eight medications our members can assist the TAMU EMS EMTs in administering. This course does not provide a certification.

Advanced First Aid II

The second part of our Advanced First Aid course will go over traumatic injuries and how to treat them. Our members will learn advanced splinting skills, bleeding control, and how to apply a c-collar and secure someone to a backboard via webbing. At the end of this course our members will enter what we call a “Scenario Pit” where a group of three members will form a team and work through a scenario using the skills our members have learned up to this point.

Clearing Review

Before attending clearing, members must go through Clearing Review which goes over the skills taught in the previous sections. This is a great time to go over skills and clear up any doubts before the actual clearing process.

Clearing

This is the last requirement for our members to complete before they can start working events with TAMU EMS. The Clearing process is a time for us to test our probies to see if they’re ready to go out into the field and work with real patients. This process will consist of a written exam and a skills exam. The written exam will test our members over the information they’ve learned in all of the courses they’ve taken with TAMECT. The skills exam will test our members off on select skills to ensure that they are prepared to use these skills in a real life scenario.

For any questions regarding our education classes, please contact our Education Coordinator at internal@tamect.tamu.edu.