A: “EMS” hours are traditionally ambulance hours that occur during the students’ normal clinical rotation. This is considered “Field Experience” by CoAEMSP, which they define as:

“Planned, scheduled, educational student time spent on an EMS unit, which may include observation and skill development, but which does not include field internship (capstone) team leading and does not contribute to the CoAEMSP definition of field internship.”

“EMS Field Internship” hours are specifically hours the student spends on the ambulance during their field internship capstone. This is where Paramedic students would be demonstrating the skill of Field Internship Team Leads. In their glossary, CoAEMSP defines “Field Internship” as:

“Planned, scheduled, educational student time on an advanced life support (ALS) unit responsible for responding to critical and emergent patients who access the emergency medical system to develop and evaluate team leading skills. The primary purpose of field internship is a capstone experience managing the Paramedic level decision-making associated with pre-hospital patients.”