First on the Scene (FOTS), developed by NAEMT and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), provides instructors with a toolkit to teach the general public basic emergency response to life-threatening emergencies until EMS arrives on the scene. Through lesson presentations and hands-on skill stations, participants will learn how to access help in the event of a life-threatening emergency and what to do until EMS arrives. 

This course covers:

• Activating the 911 system

• Hands-only CPR and AED

• Administering naloxone

• Administering epinephrine

• Responding to life-threatening bleeding

• Penetrating chest trauma

• Moving patients to safety

• Positioning injured patients

This program is ideal for non-medical responders.

PTEP educates EMS practitioners about the biological underpinnings of psychological trauma, the short and long-term impact on the brain and body, and warning signs that a patient is experiencing extreme psychological distress. EMS practitioners are also taught strategies and techniques to alleviate patients’ distress and help patients cope with what they’re experiencing to ward off lingering effects. 

​PTEP is designed for EMS practitioners and other prehospital providers. The course is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.  Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card good for 4 years, and 8 hours of CAPCE credit.

This 16 hour course from NAEMT will address vehicle operations and transport safety, focusing on the behaviors that need to be changed to promote a culture of safe driving.  It includes discussions on real-life incidents, practical safety strategies, and the importance of local laws and regulations.  Participants will learn to identify and remove hazards that lead to vehicle collisions, from sleep deprivation to technological distractions, and how to implement strategies to reduce the risk of collision.  The first day of class involves classroom based lecture activities, while day 2 features practical driving evolutions.  This class is also available in a 4 or 8 hour refresher format.

Due to the difficult environments EMS personnel encounter every day, and the impact of both direct and vicarious trauma, our EMS workforce has long faced a disproportionate challenge in maintaining their mental health resilience.

NAEMT, with support from FirstNet®, Built with AT&T, has developed a course to assist EMS agencies in building and supporting the mental health resilience of their personnel.

The Mental Health Resilience Officer (MHRO) course prepares EMS personnel to serve as their agency’s Mental Health Resilience Officer. In this role, the MHRO will engage with peers to develop an understanding of mental health issues and resilience; identify peers who are experiencing mental health stressors and crises; navigate peers in need to the right services for help; and support the development of a culture of mental health resilience and emotional wellness within the agency.

The course covers:

• the role of a Mental Health Resilience Officer;

• the impacts of EMS work on mental health and emotional wellbeing;

• mental health resilience at the individual, interpersonal, and agency level;

• communication strategies to engage your colleagues regarding mental health issues;

• case studies in EMS mental health;

• key elements of an effective agency EMS mental health resilience program; and

• how to build or strengthen an agency mental health resilience program; and resources to support the MHRO.

This course is designed for EMS practitioners who meet the following qualifications:

• at a minimum, current state certification or license as an EMT;

• at least three years of full-time practice (or equivalent) at the EMT level or above;

• strong interpersonal communication skills with an interest in serving in this position; and

• prior experience with critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) and/or motivational interviewing preferred.

The All Hazards Disaster Response (AHDR) course employs a systems-based approach to disaster preparedness and response, with a focus on caring for ill and injured patients during a mass-casualty incident or disaster. The course teaches students how to respond to the many types of disaster scenarios they may encounter, including natural disasters, infrastructure failings, fires and radiological events, pandemics, active shooter incidents, and other mass casualty events. AHDR educates participants on the critical actions required to support patient and practitioner safety during disaster response.  

Topics covered in the course include: 

• Incident Command System

• Communicating effectively during disasters 

• Mutual aid and interoperability 

• PPE and infectious diseases 

• Managing resources such as supplies, medications, and equipment 

• Incendiary devices and blast injuries 

• Triage and transport strategies and challenges 

• Patient tracking and evacuation 

The second edition of AHDR includes a robust library of disaster simulations to provide learners with the opportunity to apply scene size-up, patient triage, evacuation, and transport decisions in a low-stakes, structured environment. Course activities reinforce key concepts of disaster response.  

AHDR is appropriate for all levels of EMS practitioners and other medical professionals providing prehospital care. This course is offered in the classroom and provides 8 hours of CAPCE credit and NREMT recognition.

NAEMT’s Breaking Bad News course is an introduction to techniques that can assist EMS clinicians in delivering difficult news to patients’ families and to patients who may be seriously ill or injured. Participants will discuss the impact of breaking bad news, share professional experiences, and role play ways to deliver death notifications to loved ones and caregivers.

Breaking Bad News is offered as a 3-hour classroom course and is appropriate for all levels of EMS practitioners, other medical professionals providing prehospital patient care, and EMS supervisors and administrators, as applicable. Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion and a provider card good for 4 years. Breaking Bad News is accredited by CAPCE.

NAEMT's Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) is recognized around the world as the leading continuing education program for prehospital emergency trauma care. The mission of PHTLS is to promote excellence in trauma patient management by all providers involved in the delivery of prehospital care. PHTLS is developed by NAEMT in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma. The Committee provides the medical direction and content oversight for the PHTLS program. 

PHTLS courses improve the quality of trauma care and decrease mortality. The program is based on a philosophy stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs. PHTLS promotes critical thinking as the foundation for providing quality care. It is based on the belief that, given a good fund of knowledge and key principles, EMS practitioners are capable of making reasoned decisions regarding patient care.

The course utilizes the internationally recognized PHTLS textbook and covers the following topics:

• Physiology of life and death

• Scene assessment

• Patient assessment

• Hemorrhage control

• Airway

• Breathing, ventilation, and oxygenation

• Circulation and shock

• Special populations

The course is the global gold standard in prehospital trauma education and is taught in over 80 countries. PHTLS is appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physician assistants, physicians, and other prehospital practitioners. Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion, a wallet card good for 4 years, and 16 hours of CAPCE credit

NAEMT’s 3rd edition EMS Safety course teaches students how to protect themselves and their patients while on the job. It promotes a culture of safety and helps reduce the number of on-the-job fatalities and injuries. EMS Safety is the only national, comprehensive safety course for EMS practitioners. Its interactive format features real-life case studies and compelling discussions on current safety issues, and provides students with a forum to share their own experiences. Course activities allow students to apply critical thinking and best safety practices to EMS scenarios. 

Students are taught to:

• Identify and manage the hazards that can appear during daily tasks, from offensive drivers to violent encounters to chronic stress.

• Describe and apply the principles of crew resource management in EMS.

• Apply techniques to maintain safe vehicle operations.

• List and assess strategies to apply in the field that improve patient safety.

• Identify strategies to ensure practitioner safety.

• Strengthen resilience skills and focus on personal health to combat both chronic and critical incident stress.

Topics covered include:

• How safety impacts patients and practitioners, from maintaining a culture of safety in changing situations to communication and documentation strategies.

• Crew resource management in EMS, modeling effective communication, maintaining situational awareness, and a being an effective member of a team.

• Emergency vehicle safety including maintenance and inspection considerations, responsibilities of due regard, defensive driving techniques, and common causes of vehicle collisions and strategies to avoid them.

• Safety in the roadway, including multi-agency pre-planning, vehicle and practitioner visibility techniques, and defensive staging practices.

• Patient safety, strategies to identify and prevent common patient errors, just culture, and safe handling techniques for all patients.

• Practitioner safety, situational awareness, and verbal, physical, and chemical techniques to deescalate potential threats.

• Injury and infection prevention and control.

• Practitioner personal health, resilience skills, and ensuring personal readiness for the daily challenges and hazards of working in the field.

EMS Safety is offered as an 8-hour classroom course and is appropriate for all levels of EMS practitioners, other medical professionals providing prehospital patient care, and EMS supervisors and administrators. Students who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of completion and a wallet card good for 4 years. EMS Safety is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.

This course prepares prehospital practitioners to respond to, assess, and care for this fast-growing patient population. This third edition of the course strengthens and enhances practitioners’ ability to provide the best care for older adults in every community.

The GEMS course helps EMS practitioners learn to conduct a comprehensive assessment of geriatric patients. Be­cause the aging process affects all body systems, NAEMT’s course provides an overview of changes that occur as people age and describes how those changes can impact patient pre­sentation.  Incorporation of the GEMS Diamond (Geriatric, Environmental, Medical, and Social assessments) can help practitioners formulate a holistic diagnostic and treatment approach.

The third edition of GEMS addresses the following topics:

• Changes with age and assessment of the older patient

• Polypharmacy and Toxicity in Older Patients

• Respiratory Emergencies

• Cardiovascular Emergencies

• Trauma

• Other Medical Disorders

• Neurologic Emergencies

• Elder Maltreatment and Psychosocial Emergencies

• End-of-Life and Palliative Care

• Disaster Triage and Transporting Older Patients

• Left Ventricular Assist Devices

• Skin Disorders

• Ventilators

• Urinary Catheter and Colostomy Bag Care

• Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators

The 8-hour course is appropriate for EMTs, paramedics, emergency medical responders, nurses, physician assistants and physicians. GEMS is accredited by CAPCE and recognized by NREMT.