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As paramedic practice becomes increasingly professionalized, paramedics are becoming more responsible for integrating skills and knowledge. Continuing education is an essential aspect of the fast-moving, specialized care that paramedics provide.

Continuing Medical Education

At the RPPEO, we use two annual "core" CME blocks to provide practise, knowledge and training for paramedics. The Spring CME period begins early in April each year and closes in June. It's meant to provide 8 hours of structured education for paramedics. While this represents a mandatory education event for ACPs, Primary Care Paramedics can also attend and we include PCP content. Fall CME begins in September and runs until January of the next year, offering 8 hours of education to both Primary Care and Advanced Care Paramedics.

The RPPEO uses principles of adult learning  to make engaging interactive curriculum for paramedic core CME. We quickly switched to online only learning in 2020 with the advent of the pandemic. It's been challenging to offer interesting, fun and useful learning that meets paramedic needs, but we're committed to making it better and better!

Elective CME

The RPPEO provides many elective CME opportunities for PCP and ACP clinicians, often through recognizing the educational content of specialized courses, workshops and conferences.

When we're assessing content for electives, we look at how the educational event relates to the 6 integrated roles of the Paramedic: clinician, professional, educator, advocate, team member, and reflective practitioner. In fact, we use this concept of the interconnected roles of the Paramedic in all of our educational planning and development.

ACPs require 8 hours of elective CME annually. The RPPEO encourages PCPs to use elective educational opportunities to round out their clinical development each year.

Excellence Highlight

Adult continuing clinical education for paramedics

We've partnered with St. Francis Xavier University to provide adult education courses to our staff to ensure we're creating the best learning opportunities for paramedics. ​

The Education team works increasingly in lock-step with our Quality & Patient Safety department. This way, we'll be able to identify clinical issues that would benefit from educational intervention and examine whether our education made a difference in safety and quality of care.

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