First Aid Training - Quality Assurance

Effective Quality Assurance is a vital part of any successful training program. To maintain the excellence of Medic First Aid training, we have designed our Quality Assurance Program to help our Instructors, Trainers and Masters also known as Facilitators, rather than as a police effort. Let's take a look at how Quality Assurance works and how EMP can assist you.

The Medic First Aid name has come to stand for high quality. It has taken many years to build this reputation. We all need to work hard to maintain the good name of Medic First Aid. Quality does not just happen, nor does it withstand neglect. Quality is everyone's responsibility. We all play a part, Instructors, Trainers, Masters and EMP staff working together. There are many reasons to have a Quality Assurance Program; most important is to assure that students receive the best possible training and have the necessary skill and confidence to provide quality patient care when illness or injury occurs. We must assure that Instructors and Trainers receive thorough initial and ongoing training. A good Quality Assurance Program can increase client satisfaction with Medic First Aid Training and help maintain the recognition and approval of various regulatory bodies and industries. Without the continued credibility of Medic First Aid, Corporate grade facilitators could no longer use the programs to provide a means of livelihood. Part of the process of gaining approval includes demonstration of a sound Quality Assurance Program.

So how is Quality maintained and who is involved? Quality is maintained by monitoring course evaluations and enforcing published requirements with fairness, objectivity and consistency. Normally the staff of EMP and the Facilitators can work together to resolve issues satisfactorily. However, in those few cases where Facilitators refuse to comply with rules and regulations, punitive action may be taken.

The Quality Assurance structure is made up of layers of support. The first layer of support for Instructors consists of the Trainers and Masters. During Instructor and Trainer courses, they ensure that the rules, regulations and procedural requirements are understood. They are also available to Instructors and Trainers after training to help answer questions that arise. The international registry is the next layer of support for Facilitators. The registry for all Facilitators is maintained at EMP Headquarters in Sidney, B.C. The registry handles routine processing and administrative issues. Facilitators may be contacted if information is missing from application forms. Letters or postcards may be sent as reminders when paperwork is missing, such as class rosters or student evaluation forms. The registry also sends out special thank you letters and certificates of appreciation to Facilitators who receive high praise from students, Instructor candidates or Trainer candidates. Limited information is also available through the registry to clients, government agencies, enforcement officers and others who may contact EMP Canada. Information that is given out includes referrals for current, up to date Training Associates and confirmation as to whether a specific Facilitator is current and up to date as required by EMP Canada. Other information is kept confidential.

The Quality Assurance team is made up of experienced EMP Canada staff. The team deals with the routine issues and answers questions from Facilitators. Trainers and Masters also work as part of the team and may be called in to help with issues in the field. Through the years, we have found that most Facilitators want to teach Quality Assurance Programs and comply with the Program requirements. Sometimes, they are either unaware or inadvertently breaching those requirements.

The goal of the Quality Assurance team is to work in partnership with Facilitators to help correct any Quality Assurance problems and affect compliance with the rules and regulations. Often routine matters are handled by phone and some by correspondence. Facilitators are encouraged to call members of the Quality Assurance team for guidance and to ask questions about training or administrative matters. We are here to help. The Quality Assurance team works as a part of the international registry and reviews all class rosters and evaluations. The importance of these evaluations goes far beyond just simple evaluation of an individual class. Broad trends can be seen over a number of evaluations that may reveal the need to improve specific sections of the programs. In addition, the re certification class evaluations provide vital statistics on students' actual use of skills learned through Medic First Aid Training. EMP Canada, through the re certification class evaluations and the Good Samaritan Award Program have access to a large pool of data concerning care provided by lay persons. Your use of these evaluations and the information you provide to the Good Samaritan Award Program contributes to the knowledge and may effect future training trends.

Most Facilitators want to teach quality programs and comply with the program requirements. They run into difficulty because they are either unaware or inadvertently breach the requirements. For this reason, the Quality Assurance teams approach of working with the Facilitators has been very successful. When Facilitators understand that our main objective is to work with them to help them get back on track, they are happy to have the help. In only a few cases has punitive action been necessary to enforce compliance to the rules and regulations.

The final level in the Quality Assurance support network is the Medic First Aid Review Board. When a Quality Assurance team has been unable to affect compliance, or when a matter is considered serious, the issue is handled by the Medic First Aid Review Board. The Medic First Aid Review Board is made up of experienced EMP Canada staff and deals with serious Quality Assurance problems, conducts investigations and makes determinations concerning actions taken to enforce compliance with Medic First Aid rules and regulations. Serious Matters include grave breaches of the rules and regulations, violations of copyright trademark laws and dealing with Facilitators who are unwilling or unable to comply with requirements. Determinations that affect a Facilitator's status are made by the Board, such as putting a Facilitator on probation, suspension, or revoking a Facilitators permit to teach Medic First Aid Programs. The Board may call Trainers and Masters to act as part of the Quality Assurance team to either work with or retrain an Instructor or Trainer. Any Facilitator who feels wrongly accused can make an appeal to the Medic First Aid Review Board.

Let's look at how violations of a single Medic First Aid requirement may be handled. The basic Medic First Aid course has had a maximum allowable student to Instructor ratio of 12 to 1. Occasionally, an Instructor arrives to teach and finds that a company has put a few extra students in a class. When we see that a class is oversized, we send a routine letter to the instructor that serves as a reminder about the class size requirements and acknowledges that we understand that this may have been an exceptional circumstance. In some cases, Instructors actually write back that they actually forgot or did not know that there was a class size requirement. Occasionally, the letter has helped an Instructor get the Corporate Training Coordinator who is not a Medic First Aid Instructor, to talk to the Quality Assurance team. We are able to help the Coordinator understand the methodology we use to teach skills and why classes size must be limited. The Instructor thanked us for helping him, as he had been unable to get the Coordinator to keep the proper class size requirements. This is an example of how we work with you to help resolve problems. When a Facilitator shows a continual pattern of oversized classes and refuses to comply with the requirements after being contacted by the Quality Assurance team, the matter is then turned over to the Medic First Aid Board. At this point the Facilitators status may be effected. Retraining may be required and the Facilitators permit to teach may be revoked. In case of a serious violation of the class size requirement, such as one case where an Instructor had sixty students in a class, the matter goes directly to the Medic First Aid Review Board for immediate action. We are continually evolving better methods of helping Facilitators understand and follow requirements and maintain the quality of their programs. Some problems are due to confusion though we are trying to improve communication between EMP Canada and Medic First Aid Facilitators.

We have created the Quality Assurance team to work in partnership with Facilitators to resolve issues that do not need to go to the Medic First Aid Review Board. With your input, we have developed the successful completion packs to help ensure that students receive required materials in training. We have created the new Instructor training video to assist Trainers and Masters in providing a more standardized system of training Instructors. This ensures that all Facilitators learn vital information and requirements in a dependable manner. We are creating new applications and agreements, which is the one used for this update. It helps Facilitators better understand what they have agreed to and what their responsibilities are in becoming an Instructor, Trainer or Master.

There are several future projects that will further help Facilitators. These include possible revisions to application forms to include agreements, revisions to the rules and regulations that will make them clearer and easier to understand, and address specific programs and information packs for Corporate Training Coordinators, who are not MFA Instructors, to help explain the program methodology rules and regulations. Remember, if you need help or guidance, or have a question, please call us. You are invited to send in any suggestions you may have to help improve our communication and ability to respond to your needs. Remember, quality is maintained by all of us. You help to make the Medic First Aid difference.