School of EMT | Advanced Emergency Medical Technician
Overview
The Advanced Emergency Medical Technician’s (AEMTs) scope of practice includes basic and limited advanced skills focused on the acute management and transportation of critical and emergent patients. This may occur at an emergency scene until transportation resources arrive, from an emergency scene to a healthcare facility, between healthcare facilities, or in other healthcare settings.
For many communities, AEMTs offer an option to provide high-benefit, lower-risk advanced skills for systems that cannot support or justify paramedic-level care. This is frequently the case in rural and volunteer systems. In some jurisdictions, AEMTs are the highest level of out-of-hospital care. In communities that utilize emergency medical dispatch systems, AEMTs may function as part of a tiered response system. In all cases, AEMTs work alongside other EMS and healthcare professionals as an integral part of the emergency care team.
AEMTs practice basic, limited advanced, and pharmacological interventions to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with acute out-of-hospital medical and traumatic emergencies. Emergency care is based on assessment findings. Additionally, AEMTs provide care to minimize secondary injury and provide comfort to the patient and family while transporting the patient to an emergency care facility.
The AEMTs knowledge, skills, and abilities are acquired through formal education and training. They have the knowledge associated with—and are expected to be competent in—all the skills of the EMR and EMT. The major difference between an AEMT and EMT is the ability to perform limited advanced skills and provide pharmacological interventions to emergency patients.
The AEMT is the minimum licensure level for patients requiring limited advanced care at the scene or during transportation. The scope of practice model is limited to lower-risk, high-benefit advanced skills that are effective and can be performed safely in an out-of-hospital setting with medical oversight and limited training.
Additionally, AEMTs:
- Transport all emergency patients to appropriate medical facilities, and often perform medical transport services for patients requiring care within their scope of practice.
- Are not prepared to independently make decisions regarding the disposition of patients.
- Serve as part of an EMS response system, assuring a progressive increase in the level of assessment and care.
- May make destination decisions in collaboration with medical oversight. The principal disposition of the patient encounter will result in the direct delivery of the patient to an acute care facility.
After successful completion of the AEMT Course, students are eligible to take the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Certification Written and Practical Examinations required to apply for licensure in the State of Michigan as an AEMT.
AEMT courses begin each October and run consecutively through May of the following year.
The program is sanctioned by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Preparedness, EMS, and Systems of Care as an EMS Education Program Sponsor.