28 EMTs practising in PHL now certified as world-class EMS instructors
Written by Oliver Samson / Correspondent
TWENTY-EIGHT practising Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) have been certified as world-class Emergency Medical Services (EMS) instructors on February 20 at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Women’s Center in Taguig City.
The first International Instructors Development Course in the country for EMTs was conducted by the Australasian Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (AREMT), in partnership with the Technical Vocational Schools and Associations of the Philippines (Tevsaphil).
“The four-day course has taught them become international EMS instructors,” AREMT Chief Executive Officer Ron Gui said. “Some of them are already teaching EMS courses here but this is to qualify them for international standard and make them more competent EMS instructors in the Philippines.”
The workshop is “based on the United States National Association of Emergency Medical Services Educators course,” he said. “It’s a good step for them from 2014 forward.”
One of the goals of the gathering was to bind the local training centers into practicing one specific standard EMS course, said Cheers Corp. President Alvin Montano, one of the participants. EMR Health Care Safety Institute Chief Executive Officer Amiel Oliva agreed.
Methodologies on how to deliver the course, which included video presentations, class-sitting arrangement based on the number of students, and type of classroom, were introduced to participants, he said.
“What was emphasized for us is that we don’t actually teach. We act as facilitators,” Montano said. “Some of participants to your course are professionals in their own fields, coming from prior learning. Like in our case [Cheers Corp.], clients for our EMT program include nurses.”
Montano hopes another batch of EMTs will undergo the same course and more Filipinos will get certified by AREMT to provide them with a respectable pass for working abroad in the field of emergency medical response.
“We want to propagate AREMT in the Philippines so that there will be more training centers here, more Filipinos to get trained, and more licensed EMTs with international certification,” he said.
The country has a long queue of EMTs capable beyond question to provide emergency medical care but lack the recognition required to standardize their status, Stout Con Inc. Director Peter P. Negrido said. The EMT training centers in the country are supporting AREMT, which has certified many EMTs already deployed in different countries, to earn the recognition required.
Seventy percent of EMTs in the country work as volunteers, he said. Abroad, an EMT has a career. Through certification by AREMT, the growing number of Filipino EMTs may get the opportunity to work abroad. In the Middle East, an EMT earns about P100,000 a month.
The training course facilitated by AREMT “is the best preparation” if EMTs are eyeing to work abroad, said Negrido, who also heads Seagull Rescue Recon. In 2000 Saudi Arabia was already tapping overseas sources to meet the surge of domestic demand.
Tevsaphil President Col. Alejandro T. Escano told the first International Instructors Development Course graduates, “It’s not enough that you are dependable and ready to respond.” He said an EMT shall possess “the Filipino special warmth, known as TLC [tender loving care],” for which the Filipino is known the world over.
Adaptability and resilience make the Filipino world-class in terms of service, Tesda Deputy Director General Teodoro C. Pascua noted in his speech. Born and raised in a tropical climate, the Filipino is found working across the globe, from cold countries like Canada to hot Middle Eastern capitals like Dubai. The special knowledge and skills the Filipino EMTs have acquired on emergency medical response shall be utilized to the full extent in the service of the country and the world over, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Supervising Education Specialist Dr. Margarita Ballesteros said in her address.
“The skills that you’ve gained are not actually meant for yourselves only, but for the consumption of the Filipino people and the world,” she told the EMTs.
Ballesteros urged the news instructors to give service to the country first before crossing the seas to work a high-paying job.
Quoting the late US President John F. Kennedy, the CHED specialist told the Filipino EMTs to “not think of what the nation could do for you, but what you could do for it.”
Tevsaphil Director Sandy Montano described the first International Instructors Development Course as “a mileage in the EMS industry” and as “an unforgettable moment” of sharing the best practices in the industry through the experienced foreign resource persons.
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