Students who have RSVP’d for the Exit Session have submitted all required homework assignments and Research Examinations from the didactic portion of the course.  During this course, they also watched skills videos from either the website or the DVD in the back of their textbooks and should have memorized all the skills sheets contained on this website for your use.  Students have also signed and submitted an Exit Session Rules and Policies Contract agreement. You should review this agreement thoroughly so that you understand to what expectations the students should be held during the Session.  If you run into any difficulties where a student is breaching any one of the Policies or Rules, you should remind the student about the agreement that he or she signed.  Be prepared to produce a blank copy of the agreement if necessary.  If the student’s actions are too inappropriate or continue after your warning, you should send the student away from the Session and let him or her know that you will be sending a written report to the Program Director and that he or she should contact the Program Director by e-mail for further instructions before proceeding any further in the course.

Students should also be prepared to practice in a “facilitated practice” manner.  This means that even though this may be the first time the student has laid hands on the equipment involved, he/she should not be clueless and require the Instructor to do any more than a simple practice demonstration and coaching.  If the student seems to be unprepared for this facilitated practice to the extent that it will take time away from the more prepared students’ learning experience, then he/she should be asked to leave the Session and told that a written report will be forwarded to the Program Director and he/she should contact the Program Director for further instructions about attending another Exit Session.  Under no circumstances should totally unprepared students be allowed to remain at an Exit Session if it will cause undue hardship on the instructors, more than the designated amount of time to complete the Session, or create difficulties in learning for the other students.

Students should also bring with them a complete set of skills sheets for the Session.  Instructors should consider starting the Session with an “orientation” to describe the events for the Session and to check to ensure the students have ALL of the necessary paperwork.  Instructors may charge $1 per page for any copies that must be made and provided by the Instructor.

Final Examination MIGHT be given at the first of the Exit Session.  PERCOM is in the process of transitioning to a completely electronically monitored and videoed proctored environment for students to take Final Exam OUTSIDE of the Session. However, if all students involved do not have the electronic capabilities required, ALL students will be given Final Exam at the top of the Session. It is preferred that students have access to computers with internet connection and Mozilla Firefox as the mandatory internet browser so the test may be taken electronically at the site with the Instructor observing/proctoring the exam.  However, if you as the Instructor do not have the computer access capability to do this, please contact the Program Director two weeks prior to the session for a hard copy version to be sent to you to administer.

Once the Final Exam if indicated and “orientation” are out of the way, you should lead the students through facilitated practice of ALL skills, one skill at a time.  Give the students ample time to familiarize with the equipment involved and be comfortable in the equipment and skills performance.  You may find that it is necessary to spend more time on medical and trauma patient assessment as needed.  Please also spend time with the student outside in a vehicle or vehicles practicing extrication with KED, without KED, rapid extrication, etc.  Once this phase is complete, you should switch to scenario training and testing using teams of two or three but with each student required to test as team leader at least once.  Use jump bags, simulated patients, and try to be as realistic as possible. A simple form is included in the Resources for you to document testing for each team leader to use to guide you in giving feedback after the scenario and to serve as documentation to return with all course files to the Coordinator.  Be sure to include copies of the specific scenarios used. Some are provided in the Resources, but you are not obligated to use only these – as long as the ones you use are valid and provided with the records from the Session for documentation. 

After all the above is complete, you should skills test each student on ALL skills and complete all skills sheets as appropriate. If a student fails a skill or skills, determine if the reason for fail is minor or major (major being the student is not prepared and has not spent enough time learning the skill to be entry level competent with slight remediation prior to retest).  If in your best judgment, the student is not ready to retest before the Exit Session is over, you should advise the student of this and tell him that a written report will go to the Coordinator and that he/she must contact the Coordinator regarding retesting prior to being allowed to start clinical or field rotations (Basic only).  Both levels will be required to pass ALL indicated skills prior to receiving course completion or being marked clear to take the national certification examination.  (Note:  ECA/FR students will NOT be required to test any of the Pharmacology skills EXCEPT Epi-Pen and are exempt from testing PASG.)

Other documents that should be completed during the Exit Session and submitted back to the Lead Instructor or directly to the Program Director within 48 hours following the session include:

Roster (have student sign in each day)

Instructor Evaluations on you and any assistant instructors you utilize

Instructor Evaluations on the Course Lead Instructor (Richard Adams)

End of Course Evaluations

All of these documents and all other documentation from the Session should be returned promptly after the Session to the Lead Instructor for the Exit Session or directly to PERCOM’s Program Director.

Thanks again for being part of the PERCOM Instructional Team,

Jane E. Dinsmore, Program Director