By Doug Smith, CEO, Medical Educator

EMSTesting uses four different curricula. We will be reducing the curricula to three, eliminating the NR2011. I will explain more below:

NR2011

The NR 2011 is the National Registry Practice Analysis that was released in 2011. This should no longer be used at all and we plan on removing this reference.

The other three curricula are the Module, Topic, Objectives (MTO); the Educational Standards (ES); and the National Registry 2015 (NR2015).

Educational Standards

Educational Standards refer to the uniform document released by NHTSA around 2008. This is the curriculum that most EMS textbooks follow. Though it is standard in that it has the same category and topic for each level, it is not very specific, observable or measurable making it very difficult to truly standardize and use for specific, constructive feedback. Since it is what the textbook uses, we suggest that you create quizzes and tests using this curriculum when you first begin the program.

When you finish a large section (Module) we would then suggest you turn on the adaptive testing portion of the website and use the corresponding Educational Standards to help acquaint students with the adaptive process.

NR2015

As you near the completion of your program (and particularly during the Capstone portion of the Paramedic program) we would suggest you change the Adaptive Testing curriculum to the NR2015. The NR2015 is based on the National Registry Practice Analysis and it is what the current National Registry Examinations should be based on.

MTO

When students have less than adequate performances, Adaptive Testing can be designed to focus on the specific MTO where the students are weak. The MTO is the reference to the specific, observable, measurable objectives that were utilized prior to the release of the Educational Standards. It is also the objectives that the publishers chose to adopt for the most part where they could to build out the textbooks based on the new Educational Standards.

Conclusion

All of these curricula are available to instructors and students alike. Though many items are cross-referenced to all of the curricula, it is important to note that there are some questions that are unique to one or only two of the curricula. Just select reports and then the provider level and curricular choice you want. Doing this will download the selected curriculum in a PDF format for your use and review.