The poor volunteers...

[medic417]

Are they fighting against increased education, or fighting an unfunded mandate increasing education?

They are fighting the education. What is sad is that there are several weekend schools held at area fire departments within easy drives that they could attend for free under current grants. Attending just 2 of those a year plus a couple of evenings of in house education would be able to cover this proposed requirement. Only new expense would be the gas to the classes. I used to attend more than is being required by proposal every year and only had gas expense as grants paid the rest.

 

[reaper]

Does it matter? The state has the right to mandate any training level they want and does not have to fund anything. It is up to the Depts to make sure their people meet the requirements!

 

[JonTullos]

Boy, I guess if that's the case, then they should do away with all those "burdensome" things like medical school, interships, residency, fellowships... after all, we wouldn't want to see the death of a town's hospital due to burdensome requirements.

That's not what I meant. I didn't say it (I realize that now) but what I meant was the money issue. Who's paying? If the state's footing the bill then that's awesome. If they expect the locals to do it... there will be a lot that can't. Then what? Some say "just disband the ones that can't and let the others pick up the slack." What if the "others" are in the same position? It's like No Child Left Behind: The feds came in and said that schools have to do this idiocy in order to continue to receive federal funds. Guess what: NCLB was not funded in of itself. The states were expected to do it themselves. Now you have a cluster flub that was meant to do good but, in a lot of cases, is hurting more than it's helping.

I don't think it's that the locals wouldn't want to pay to have their departments better trained but the reality is that many simply can't do it. Then what?

 

[TransportJockey]

That's not what I meant. I didn't say it (I realize that now) but what I meant was the money issue. Who's paying? If the state's footing the bill then that's awesome. If they expect the locals to do it... there will be a lot that can't. Then what? Some say "just disband the ones that can't and let the others pick up the slack." What if the "others" are in the same position? It's like No Child Left Behind: The feds came in and said that schools have to do this idiocy in order to continue to receive federal funds. Guess what: NCLB was not funded in of itself. The states were expected to do it themselves. Now you have a cluster flub that was meant to do good but, in a lot of cases, is hurting more than it's helping.

I don't think it's that the locals wouldn't want to pay to have their departments better trained but the reality is that many simply can't do it. Then what?

As EMTs most of us are required to provide our own money for CE credits. I don't see a problem with requiring individuals to pay for their own education if a service can't cover the fees.

 

[VFFforpeople]

Most vollies in my area have their CEs covered because we staff Medics that take the time to keep it updated, we also have retired we trained, training capts. We are lucky to have such a great resource like that. Other counties may not be as lucky. If your area can't afford it, maybe talk to other VFCs or the latter and see if maybe you can sit in with them on their trainings, or see if the paid you have will let you sit in. Other than that maybe see if Red crss has trainings or what not. There are so many options and grants and other things you can try, there is really no reason why a VFC or latter, can't be up to the standards of paid.