Few professions operate in an environment as high stakes as paramedics. Anxiety and stress levels are jacked. Life or death decisions made in split seconds. Performance is required under intense pressure. When lives are on the line, the need for effective and thorough training to fall back on couldn’t be greater.

Assessing a Paramedic’s Training

The quality of a paramedic’s training and development program can have a profound impact on job performance, job satisfaction and career longevity:

• Job performance: critical skills development from training needs to transfer to high quality patient care while out in-the-field

• Job satisfaction: adequate training and support gives paramedics the tools to feel confident handling the demands of their job (without adequate training, stress and anxiety take their toll). Effective skills execution leads to better patient outcomes, in turn effecting job satisfaction

• Career longevity: inadequate training and development leaves paramedics struggling to handle their role. This inevitably accelerates career burnout, with the industry losing well trained and talented paramedics

Training technology has evolved rapidly to support paramedics’ learning needs. Learning platforms offer increasingly sophisticated scenarios training. And robotics and simulation technology allow paramedics to practice techniques in a safe environment. With digital learning tools, the performance of skills can be tracked and quantified and systematically improved.

But there’s one training area that current technology has met its limit…

Tracking and improving skills execution in emergency situations

Practicing CRP on a dummy in a classroom is one thing. Executing the correct technique on a bloodied highway with a flat-lining patient is another. What’s been missing in the training toolbox is the measurement and development of skills while in high-pressure emergency situation.

Reliable, repeatable and quantifiable assessment of paramedics’ real on-the-job skills is the only way to perfect patient care.

Xapimed mobile training technology provides the solution for tracking paramedics’ on-the-job skills and improving them:

• Mobile apps: it is easy to use Xapimed to turn any smartphone or tablet into skills assessment devices that can be used anywhere, anytime (even while offline) for more on tech mobile tech, click here.

• Systemized assessments: program standardised assessments and roll them out with a click of the button. You can collect datasets of the entire team and build benchmark performance levels. This lets you easily identify skills gaps in individual paramedics and across entire teams

• Quantified patient care: assessing in-the-field skills lets you learn more about the level of your patient care your organisation provides. Tracking skills execution means you can improve patient care because you will have the data to understand skills shortages (and the training needed to overcome them)

• Prove training works: with performance data in hand, you can assess which learning experiences work to deliver on-the-job skills. Want to know if your paramedics need more simulation training or whether Learning Management System training will do? With Xapimed you can correlate training experiences with on-the-job performance to find out which training is most effective

• Coach in-the-field: ‘Xapimed‘ coaching lets you track and manage face-to-face coaching. As a learning manager, you can collect data that proves trainee paramedics have been given the proper on-the-job coaching that will help them build their skills

With Xapimed you’ll bridge the gap between paramedic training in a safe classroom environment, and the execution of skills in real world emergency situations.

‘Xapimed‘ gives you the tools to collect data on-the-job. But you need a way of connecting that data with your training platforms. That’s where xAPI comes in.

We’ve written a guide to help you understand the power of xAPI and how it can help you measure training effectiveness and prove training ROI. Download it today start perfecting your patient care: