BLS
AND ALS STANDARDS IN CANADA
BLS
AND ALS STANDARDS IN CANADA
There are some major differences between Canadian and U.S. training standards, just as there are some major differences from state to state and from province to province. For this reason, Bernie Roche, R.N., B,Sc.N., W-EMT, OSJ has been appointed as WEMSI's Canadian Screening Officer.
Any Canadian interested in attending WEMSI courses may contact Bernie by e-mail to discuss whether his/her background is suitable for admission to the WEMSI program.
Please note that Bernie does NOT send out WEMSI pamphlets or other printed material. Such items may be obtained as described elsewhere on this site.
Generally, Canadian applicants have done very well at the WEMSI courses, and we welcome applications from Canadians.
| PROVINCE | EMERGENCY CARE WORKER TITLE | HOURS OF TRAINING | BLS/ALS |
| ALBERTA | Emergency Medical Responder | 140 | BLS |
| EMT - Ambulance | 300 | BLS | |
| EMT - Paramedic | 2 years (Note 1) | ALS | |
| BRITISH COLUMBIA (Note 2) See below for 1999 Standards |
EMA-I Paramedic | 80 | BLS |
| EMA-II Paramedic | 240 | Int. (Note 3) | |
| EMA-III Paramedic | 1000 | ALS | |
| MANITOBA | First Responder | 90 | BLS |
| EMA-I | 170 | BLS | |
| EMA-III | Int. (Note 3) | ||
| NEW BRUNSWICK | Basic EMT | 79 | BLS |
| Intermediate EMT | varies | Int. (Note 5) | |
| NEWFOUNDLAND | Basic EMT | varies 50/480 | Int. (Note 5) |
| NOVA SCOTIA | Basic EMT | 133 lecture 1024 practical | BLS |
| ONTARIO | EMA (Note 6) | 1090 | BLS |
| EMA-Paramedic | varies (Note 8) 8/400 | ALS | |
| PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND | Basic EMT | 80-120 | BLS |
| QUEBEC | Intermediate EMT | 810 | BLS |
| SASKATCHEWAN | Emergency Medical Technician | CMA (Note 9) Level II | BLS |
| Emergency Medical Technician - Advanced | CMA Level III | Int. | |
| Emergency Medical Technician - Paramedic | ALS |
1.....Provided as credit program through the Northern and Southern alberta Institutes of Technology.
2.....Paramedic training in British Columbia is provided by an through the Paramedic Training Institute of the Justice Institute.
3.....Includes application of MAST pants, intravenous therapy, diabetic protocols, administration of Narcan, Epinephrine, Ventolin.
4.....Includes defibrillation, intravenous therapy, airway management, pilot program in drug therapy.
5.....Skills include defibrillation, MAST, intravenous therapy, administration of epinephrine and other medications.
6.....Training occurs in a College of Applied Arts and Technology prior to commencing employment.
7.....Training in ALS skills occurs only through designated base hospital programs.
8.....Defibrillation and symptom relief drug therapy require 8 hours of training each, while full service air ambulance paramedics may require up to 400 hours of training. Skills and training are tailored to the needs and abilities of the environment the paramedic will work in.
9.....The CMA levels are the emergency medical attendant educational program levels defined by the Canadian Medical Association for the accreditation of educational institutions preparing prehospital emergency care providers.
NOTE: We are indebted to Mr. Dennis Brown, Ontario Ministry of Health, who presented this information at SARSCENE '94, a Canadian conference sponsored by the NSS (National Search and Rescue Secretariat).
In a recent e-mail, Chris Robertson points out that the material above is outdated:
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 From: Chris Robertson Organization: The Michener Institute To: broche@titan.tcn.net Subject: Ontario EMA Standards In the brief outlining Paramedic qualifications, I noted one glaring discrepancy. The info provided by Mr Brown to you is only refering to "didactic" time alone, and is therefore not accurately portraying EMS Educational standards in Ontario. 1090 hours for Ontario Paramedic I (EMA I with SAED and symptom relief) is about 1090 hours as stated and is available from Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. This hour figure refers to didactic, clinical, and field clinical time. Ontario Paramedic II (National level III, Advanced Paramedic) is currently 200 hours of didactic and 480 hours of clinical (half in hospital, half in field Preceptorship) for A TOTAL OF 680 HOURS BEYOND LEVEL I! This training is part of the Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support Study (OPALS) and is one of the largest Advanced Paramedic Training and research projects in North American History. The education is being provided by The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences in Toronto. Most discrepant in your web site is the "400 hours for Flight Paramedics"...... In fact, Critical Care Flight Paramedics undertake 400 hours of didactic, 400 hours of clinical and 6 Months of Field Preceptorship before final certification FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF ABOUT 800 HOURS OF ACTUAL TEACHING TIME AND AN ADDITIONAL 1040 HOURS OF FIELD INTERNSHIP BEYOND LEVEL I! I think it only fair that you ammend your site in some way so as not to suggest that Critical Care Flight Paramedics have fewer hours of education than is currently even required for land level III Paramedics (Provincial Paramedic II). Your other references (i.e. Alberta) cite total times as well and not only to didactic hours. Chris Robertson, Critical Care Flight Paramedic
Ooops! So I wrote to Chris:
Dear Chris: Thank your for your letter. Perhaps a bit of background is in order, to help you understand our WEMSI site, and how we came to list some of the educational levels for EMAs, EMCAs, Paramedics, et cetera, across Canada. I am the only Canadian volunteer currently active with WEMSI. Aside from being an instructor, and a task force leader for one of the chapters in our text, I am also the web site administrator. Several years ago, the question arose of admission standards for the WEMSI courses. We wanted to ensure that anyone taking our program would be reasonably likely to be successful, and felt we had to establish suitable prerequisite levels. Since most (all, except yours truly) of our staff were Americans, developing American standards was fairly simple, since all our people had "come up through the ranks" and thus understood fairly well what different "titles" actually represented. But the Canadian system was substantially different, and believe it or not, some of our American brethren found it hard to believe that the Candian standards might be equivalent to those in the U.S. I won't even mention what they said when I suggested that in most provinces, our standards might be dramatically higher than those in bordering states. To make a long story short, Keith Conover, our medical director, cleverly solved the problem by appointing me the "Canadian Screening Officer", and giving me the task of approving or vetting Canadian applicants. I'm still trying to figure out how to repay him. :) Needless to say, I haven't found it necessary to turn any Canadians away, so far. But to have some "factual" information available, when I came across some figures which Mr. Brown presented at a SARSCENE Conference, I posted them to our web site. These figures were a brief summary only, and neither Mr. Brown nor I ever intended them to be a complete, all-inclusive listing of every prerequisite in every province. But they provided a general, overall view of the types of programs in place in Canada at that time - enough to provide a "thumbnail sketch" of the current situation. And I should add that the shortcomings were not meant to be a slight of the Ontario (or any other) standards or programs. It was never my intention to provide details of every single item and requirement of the education and training in each province. All I wanted was a "one-page", general description. Obviously, detailed information should be provided by those more closely involved with the various provincial programs, and the information on our site met that criteria nicely. That having been said, I certainly am willing to correct oversights and omissions on our web site, and I would like your help in determining the best way to do so. I was going to ask your permission to post the material you so kindly sent me to our site, but as I was writing this letter, I realized there might be a better way. I wonder if you can provide a list of web sites (URLs) for all the provincial associaitions, so that I can add a section to our web site, and visitors can then get the information "straight from the horses' mouths", so to speak? If I were to simply add the material you sent, I'd still be short nine other provinces, and I'd have to worry about updates. If the various associations have the standards on their sites, links would be a much better way to go. If not, can you provide details for the other provinces? I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your interest and your help. Best Wishes, Bernie Roche WEMSI Web Site Administrator
Chris replied:
