The Public Safety Group Blog

Curious about the impact Public Safety Group products may have on your training program? Since making the switch to PSG, the EMT program at INHS has achieved a 90% or higher NREMT pass rate in every class. Read on to learn more. 

Overview

Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in Spokane, Washington providing collaboration in health care services on behalf of the community and its member organization, Providence Health Care. The Health Training division of INHS provides certification and continuing education opportunities for EMS and health care providers both in-person and online, including EMT, AEMT, Paramedic, and more. The division typically trains around 120-150 students each year.

What led you to choosing Public Safety Group as a provider?

Before switching to PSG, we were using Brady’s books and platform in most of our courses. However, we were looking to change it up, as we found the online program from Brady [MyLab] to be lacking for our online class needs. PSG was doing a live demo of its platform [Navigate] in Seattle, and I was impressed. After reviewing some of the books, I made the jump to PSG and Navigate for our EMT and AEMT programs. I also showed our main Paramedic instructor, who was using Brady, the PSG material and platform, and he switched our paramedic classes to PSG as well.

What sets Public Safety Group books apart from the competition?

I like the structure of the PSG books. For example, Brady broke the patient assessment
section into 5 different pieces (primary assessment, initial assessment, etc.), while the PSG book puts it into one chapter, which makes it easier to deliver to students as one complete lesson instead of 4-5 smaller lessons. Regarding how the book ties into Navigate, I like how easy it is to customize the course and re-arrange chapters into the order I want to deliver them, plus I can add extra content (videos, pictures, etc.) as needed.

What do you like the most about Navigate as an instructor?

As mentioned earlier, the customization is fantastic. It’s easy to set up and customize my gradebook in a way I find easy to manage. I also love the discussion board feature. We have really used this in our courses to engage students early in the course and allow students to collaborate with each other online. Overall, being able to see everything in my course on one screen is a big help, and the platform itself is easy to navigate. The update to Navigate that occurred in July [2020] has been good in my experience, even if most of the functionality is the same. Also, while no technology is perfect, I’ve found the Navigate platform has fewer technological issues and glitches than Brady’s platform.

Additionally, for our exclusively online EMT program, the simulations and web-guided lectures have been awesome. We used to have to record an entire EMT program through a microphone/camera and upload the videos online for our students to watch. The simulations and web-guided lectures have eased that burden.

Could you describe your experience using Fisdap? What benefits has it provided for your students?

We use pretty much all the different components of Fisdap. To break it down into each component:

Scheduler – We require students to complete one 12-hour shift during their program. Before COVID, we had 3 different agencies students could choose from. Fisdap makes it easy for students to schedule shifts at various agencies themselves. We upload the shifts and then students can choose what works for them based on their schedule. Preceptors can also easily add their evaluations and comments, which is great.

Skills Tracker – We took all the Washington state skill sheets and uploaded them to the Fisdap platform. Evaluators can do work on their electronic devices, students can see what evaluators said in their reports, and graduation requirements are easy to find within the Skills Tracker. It’s a lot easier than thumbing through 56 IVs.

Testing – We started using the EMT Readiness exam as our final exam for our EMT program. It’s tough and the class average on the final went down dramatically at first. However, since doing this, our NREMT pass rates have improved significantly. The Fisdap exams do a great job getting students used to the way questions are structured and worded on the NREMT. The prescription that the exam gives for what students need to study based on their results is unmatched.

What kind of success have you seen in certification and other areas since utilizing Public Safety Group products?

Since making the switch to PSG, our EMT program has achieved a 90% or higher NREMT pass rate in every class. This is largely because students have seen 1,000+ multiple choice questions between Navigate and Fisdap at the end of their course, which gets them familiar with the wording and content of questions on the NREMT.

Navigate’s quiz and exam creator has also saved us an average of 7 hours per class in time that it usually takes to create and grade paper quizzes/exams.

Are there any closing comments you’d like to share with the Public Safety Group team or anyone considering adopting our products?

The Navigate platform is very organized and user-friendly, and the tech support is phenomenal. Whenever I’ve had issues with Navigate or needed training, the tech support team has been great in helping me out, and they’re always providing training webinars to help better master using Navigate. Also, the sales team is great about letting me know about special offers. They understand our needs and purchase volume well. My rep, Hope, is great and very responsive.

For more information about the products highlighted in this Customer Spotlight or to learn more about how the Public Safety Group can help you reach your unique training goals, please contact your dedicated representative today.