"This is a great course! The material covered will greatly help our EMT-Basics understand advanced life support skills and offer better support on an ALS level transport."

Butch Russell
North East Mobile Health Services
S. Portland, Maine

Reviewed in the June issue of EMS Magazine.
Review by Norm Rooker

There seems to be a growing trend in EMS to run ALS ambulances with a one-and-one configuration.  That is, with one EMT and one paramedic.  This is done for several reasons.  It is cheaper for many providers to pay for an EMT and paramedic rather than two paramedics.  Plus, for the last several years, many parts of the U.S. have experienced a paramedic shortage, and going to one-and-one is a strategy that keeps ALS units in service.  Whatever the reason, this puts a lot of pressure on the paramedic.  To help fill the gab between BLS and ALS providers, long-time and well-known paramedic, EMS educator, speaker and author Mike Smith has developed ACLS for EMT-Basics, one of the seven-part EMT continuing education series from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.  

ACLS for EMT-Basics came about as a workshop idea of the same name, hatched up between Mike Smith and Baxter Larmon, another highly popular and well-known EMS educator and speaker who wrote the forward on this book.  They’ve been giving their ever-expanding workshop at various EMS conferences over the years. I called Smith for a brief insight into the book, which doesn’t so much create junior paramedics or a “paramedic-lite” EMT as it does ALS assistants who are more informed and involved members of the ALS team. 

Smith explains that ACLS for EMT-Basics was designed to be a supplemental text to accompany the course.
 “This is true continuing-ed, not refresher training, but a real sharing of new knowledge to assist the EMT into taking a more active role in working with his or her paramedic partner in running ALS calls,” says Smith.  “As such, this book is a bit different.  It’s not designed to be read cover-to-cover prior to or instead of taking the course.  Rather, it’s designed to be read as the EMT takes each module.  For instance, we take the current 58 hours of pharmacology that a paramedic student receives and distill them down to a two-hour module covering the standard drugs for various medical conditions, why and how they’re given and how to know if they are achieving the desired effect.”

Richly supported with photos, sidebars, glossaries and a website, ACLS for EMT-Basics is a well-written, succinct (only 125 pages) aid to helping and EMT become a true ALS assistant and not just a paramedic’s driver and scribe.  In fact, I have recommended it to my department for inclusion in the four-day EMT preparation program all our new firefighters go through before they do their four-month rotation on the ambulance as part of probation.

There is also a separate instructor’s tool-kit CD-ROM available.  For more information, visit www.jbpub.com, or call 800-832-0034.

Norm Rooker is a paramedic firefighter, in that order, and is frequently detailed as an acting rescue captain/paramedic supervisor for the San Francisco Fire Dept. He has been active in EMS since 1973 and is a member of his department’s technical rescue committee and surf and cliff rescue teams.

"ACLS for EMT-Basics is one of the better training manuals I have seen on the subject.  It takes the EMT-B to the next EMS support level in patient care.  The more an EMT-B can do to support the ALS provider, the more effective the EMS team becomes.  This manual should be used in a bridge class and I will recommend ACLS for EMT-Basics to my Training Chief and Course Director."

Al M. Slarve
EMT Instructor, Cochise College
Lt. Fry Fire District