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It would be very interesting for someone to get to CCST date without something like ALS, and then see what happens? Simon Simon Carley SpR in Emergency Medicine [log in to unmask] Evidence based emergency medicine http://www.bestbets.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cliff Reid" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 7:25 AM Subject: Merit Badging - who 'sucks' as an Emergency Physician? > (Forgive me if this has been discussed before - I can't remember) > > An interesting post was put on the (mainly american) pediatric (sic) > emergency medicine mailing list which I've pasted below, concerning the > inappropriateness of demanding that a qualified emergency physician be > currently certified in PALS. > I feel that if 5 years of registrar training do not equip someone with the > skills and knowledge required of an ALS provider, we're doing something > seriously wrong, and I would even extend that to cover ATLS and APLS. > So should the Faculty take a similar stance to the American College against > such 'merit badging'. It's perhaps fair enough to expect interested SHOs to > have these courses behind them before embarking in higher specialist > emergency medicine training, but should they then be expected to re-certify > or re-do courses at considerable expense (unless of course they want to be > instructors), when there are plenty of other good courses to spend a limited > study leave budget on? I realise for those of us who are instructors it's > less relevant, but nevertheless I can't help feeling my training is being > undermined when A&E consultant job ads require both a CCST in emergency > medicine and 'current ALS & ATLS certification'. > Anyone know the Australasian College's position on this, particularly as > APLS is pretty hard to get onto for the folks over here? > > Cheers > > Cliff Reid > Australia > > (I wonder if Adrian's still up!) > > > as you know, the American College of Emergency Physicians has taken a stand > against merit badging in emergency medicine. Meaning that if a physician > is board certified in emergency medicine, he or she should not be required > by a hospital to also have a current PALS, BLS, ACLS, or ATLS > card. Obviously if an emergency medicine physician only knows what is > taught in PALS for example, then he or she sucks as an emergency physician. > > For years our program has been giving our new EM residents a PALS course > when they start their residency which does have some basic peds > resuscitation info that is good. Recently we altered the course to be more > a Pediatric Critical Care day. They receive skills stations and lectures > including additional ones on pediatric seizures and more in-depth > respiratory cases. We've used the slides from the AAP/ACEP APLS course > which are much better than the PALS slides. For those of us who would > rather die than teach another PALS class, this beefed up course was a nice > change. > > What are residencies doing about graduating residents who are asking to be > re-certified in PALS because "their cards expired". Their new jobs are > asking for current PALS cards. If we "recertify" them, and give them > cards, this just perpetuates the hospitals to ask again for current > cards. When is the cycle going to stop? How do we stop the madness? > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp