News submitted by Bil Rosen
New Jersey — Last week ended the public commentary period for the proposed changes to NJAC 8:40A, the law that governs how EMT-Basics are certified. While many of the proposed changes were positive modernizations of the certification process and EMT-Basic scope of practice, a few of the changes were either logistically impractical or offered little benefit to current practice.
The New Jersey Emergency Medical Services Educator’'s Association (NJEMSEA) put together a position paper on the proposed changes, and sought out likeminded organizations and industry figures to endorse the positions on the changes. All agencies contacted expressed similar positions to that of the NJEMSEA and the document had endorse ments from several other NJ EMS organizations.
“We contacted a number of organizations that had interests in NJ EMS and we could not find one organization that thought having to repeat ICS, NIMS, HazMat Awareness and CBRNE every three years was a good idea” said John Mateus, NJEMSEA President, “It’'s especially difficult to justify it as a standard for First Responders since the Law Enforcement and Fire Suppression industries only require the training be done once.”
“NJ’s EMS organizations really came together in a way rarely seen before,” said Bil Rosen, NJEMSEA Vice-President “I think we told the Department of Health in a constructive way that the industry thinks the proposed regulations need some work before they go to legislature.”
The document was sent to the Department of Health Regulatory Coordinator with the logos of the endorsing organizations. Organizations that endorsed the document in full or in part included:
- Medical Transporta tion Association NJ
- NJ Association of Paramedic Programs
- NJ State Safety Council
- Hunterdon County EMS Squad Chief’'s Association
- Mercer County Regional EMS Association
- East Bergen Ambulance Association
- Steven Vetrano, DO
- Mark Merlin, MD
The Department of Health will continue its regulatory process by digesting the public commentary and possibly editing the proposed NJAC 8:40A based on the public feedback. A version of NJAC 8:40A that is ready for a vote by legislature is expected in a few months.
The NJEMSEA is a non-profit Association of EMS Educators with a mission of promoting quality didactic and clinical education through professionalism, consistency, ethics and experience to students of the emergency medical services throughout the state of New Jersey. You can get information about the organization at http://www.NJEMSEA.org.