How can we best help our EMS Students? We should build an environment in which they are constantly learning…or studying even without knowing it.
This is one goal of Sterling Credentials–to maximize the value gained by students every time they use it.
So, our PCR Field Note uses several techniques to assist students out on their clinical adventures!
First (and most importantly)–it parallels the assessment psychomotor skill. This feature provides a number of benefits:
- Students tend to think of classroom, lab, skills, and clinicals as distinctly separate elements. Using the progress of assessment begins to reveal how everything is linked and interwoven.
- The PCR Field Note tool provides many medical terms to assist the student in expanding their vocabulary.
- The tool gives special attention to the assess-then-immediately-intervene cycles specifically important to answer questions on the NREMT cognitive exam which requires rigorous adherence to these cycles.
Second, it provides a guide (and security blanket) to your unsure fledgling students. It helps them make sure to gather all the info they need for their electronic PCRs–just like in real life.
Third, we’ve provided prompts for a timeline narrative format (light gray on back in narrative area) where students can draft their narratives. We chose this format because the literature shows that the human brain wraps around “stories” the best thus resulting in enhanced understanding and retention of important facts.
I hope you find this tool useful–there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Download it and offer it to your EMS students. It can be printed side-by-side on a regular 8.5×11 paper which, when folded, fits handily into cargo pants pockets!
Use it as practice during simulations and see what happens. And if you like what we did with this, you should see what we’ve done with the Sterling Credentials platform…always supporting student development.