Studio-A EMS Paramedic Podcast

NEMSA Accomplishments 2007

May 18th, 2007

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At the National EMS Academy, we believe that it is important for students to be prepared for what they will encounter as a medic. As a division of Acadian Ambulance Service, our qualified EMS instructors provide the knowledge and experience of the nation’s largest private EMS service to our students.

My name is Gifford Saravia , the Academy Director.  I invite you to enjoy our brief tour of all the activities here at the National EMS Academy.

The Academy provides instruction at six locations throughout Louisiana.
 Our high speed video conferencing network allows us to provide the same instructional content to all of our students at once.  This allows us to use the best instructor in each area of expertise. We also provide local instruction off of the network when it is most appropriate, such as skills training or accelerated EMT classes.

The National EMS Academy strives to excel in three areas:  Certification, Development and Synergy.  We call these focus areas the Pillars of Excellence.

At any given time, we have between 250 and 300 students earning their certification as an Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic. In partnership with South Louisiana Community College students also earn college credit while gaining their EMT certification.

Upon completion of training, our students take the National Registry of EMTs certification test.  The percentage of Academy students that pass this test far exceeds the national average.

The National EMS Academy produces approximately 75% of all the paramedics trained in the state of Louisiana each year.  As of April 30th, 46 of our students have completed their paramedic certification. We are well ahead of schedule to reach our goal of 90 new paramedics in 2007. 

As part of the State’s School to Work program, we have begun the process of training seven high school teachers to begin offering EMT-Basic classes in the Fall of 2007.  The students completing this program during their senior year will be ready for the workplace upon graduation. 

Acadian Ambulance Service medics act as liaisons with the high schools and help the students learn the skills needed as medics.  We will increase the number of new high school teachers each year expanding the program to schools throughout the state.
We strive to provide many opportunities to our staff to improve their skills and to meet their continuing education requirements.

The findings from the employee survey in December resulted in modifications to the class schedule, delivery process and advertising methods to announce the classes.

Over 200 medics participated in our Refresher classes in 2006 and we project that we will meet our goal of a 25% increase in participation in 2007. 
For the past year, our Academy staff has focused on creating web-based training courses to facilitate the delivery of the compliance education.  Using this method of educational delivery reduces the amount of overtime pay and travel expenses normally incurred to provide this mandatory education.

During the first quarter of 2007, over 3000 web-based training sessions were completed by our employees.  As we create more web-based courses, we anticipate providing our employees with many new learning opportunities while keeping the cost to the company to a minimum.
To facilitate the educational activities of our employees, we utilize a learning management system or LMS.  The LMS allows the Academy staff to track, schedule and score classes on a 24 hour basis.  In the future, we foresee offering training to external customers through the LMS – adding a revenue source while serving the local community.
In 2006, we created a podcast at, yourstudioa.com,, covering topics relevant to Emergency Medical Services.  The podcasts include interviews with our medics, ER doctors and medical professionals nationwide.  Subscribers from around the world access the content and participate in the podcasts.
Acadian Ambulance has used its ACES educational program over the years to develop its supervisory personnel.  We continue to expand the number of courses as well as the breadth of content, which is open to all of our employees.

Employees can  enroll online for the ACES classes in which they are interested. Our goal is to provide quality education to our employees in a convenient and effective manner.

Everyday in the field, our medics work with local law enforcement, fire and public health officials to achieve a common goal:  to save lives.  We are determined to use the same principles in our educational endeavors.

Our company is very active in community education, specifically First Aid and CPR.  Each year, our staff is very involved in the planning and training activities of the “Be a Heartstarter� Mass CPR training, where approximately 1,500 people are trained in CPR in one day.

We have expanded our offerings to include Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Life Support classes for doctors and nurses.  We have also partnered with Tulane University to host their Advanced Trauma Life Support classes here in Lafayette.  Our facilities allow them to reach more physicians in western and central Louisiana who find traveling to New Orleans inconvenient. 

Recently, we have begun negotiations to work hand-in-hand with government and educational entities to provide training at the EMT-Basic and Paramedic levels. Our proven EMT curriculum and instructional methodology can help solve medic shortages throughout the nation.

We are very proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years, however, it is hard to contain our excitement about what we have in store for the future. 

We are eager to work with our many talented partners to expand the reach of our educational endeavors for years to come.  I would like to thank you for taking the time to learn about the National EMS Academy. 

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