May 29, 2009: CoAEMSP accreditation returned to ACTIVE status as part of a CONSORTIUM with DC and ALEXANDRIA fire departments

April 06, 2007: GWU places it's CoAEMSP accreditation on INACTIVE status, will not restore BSHS Emergency Paramedicine degree program.

May 12, 2006: GWU EHS is not accepting new applications for the Bachelor of Science in Health Science: Emergency Paramedicine option

GWU Emergency Health Services offered an on-campus, clinically based BSHS in Emergency Paramedicine for over 15 years. That program allowed students to obtain an undergraduate degree AND sit for the National Registry (and District of Columbia ) paramedic certification exams. Like a dozen other EMS bachelor degree programs offered in the nation, much of the paramedic didactic and clinical work was assigned in the junior and senior years of the program of study. In the language of academia, these are “upper division” courses.

In 2004 EHS and the university discontinued the on-campus clinical program. At that time there were GWU EHS students who completed their paramedic training but not the balance of their program of study. Dean Johnson approved an alteration of the existing distance education BSHS program to allow these students to complete their undergraduate program of study.

The problem: granting upper division transfer credit for professional certification

The problem is granting upper division academic credit for medical professional certifications that are also offered as lower division courses at community and technical colleges. It raises serious questions that affect the academic accreditation of the university. While I can identify eight universities and colleges that run on-campus paramedic programs using upper division courses, there are over 260 community colleges that exclusively use lower division courses in paramedic certification education.

EHS submitted documentation to Academic Affairs to formally establish the BSHS in Emergency Paramedicine distance education option. This formalized the temporary program offered to the stranded on-campus paramedic track students. A major component of this program of study is to provide upper division transfer credit for paramedic certification. As we approached the deadline for the 2006 – 2007 Bulletin (the university catalog that describes all of the programs, requirements, regulations and restrictions) this issue remained under study. With this transfer credit issue unresolved, we are compelled to stop accepting students into the BSHS Emergency Paramedicine program.

Transfer credit for paramedic certification

The university will grant LOWER division transfer credit for candidates that can document a state or National Registry EMT-Paramedic certification. For those candidates who did not obtain college credit when taking their paramedic training, here is the template:

Nonaccredited program in non-traditional setting – 16 semester hours

CoAEMSP Accredited Program – 28 semester hours

With over 40 different EMT intermediate programs it is impossible to develop a template to issue academic transfer credit for that level of certification. If your EMT/Intermediate program was delivered through a college with a regional academic accreditation, we will evaluate and provide lower division academic credit.

End of the BSHS Emergency Paramedicine option, start of a CoAEMSP consortium

Updated December 18, 2006: Efforts to re-institute the Emergency Paramedic option are unsuccessful. As we prepare the 2007-2008 Bulletin, there is no ability to grant upper division transfer credits for state or national registry paramedic training. The only exception is if you are transferring upper division course credit from a regionally accredited university or college.

Updated April 06, 2007: Based on the School of Health Science strategic plan and current contract activities, EHS has requested to go on INACTIVE status with the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS Professions. (CoAEMSP). On-campus GWU students seeking EMT-I or Paramedic certification are encouraged to obtain training at Northern Virginia Community College, one of our strategic partners. There are no plans to restore the BSHS Emergency Paramedicine program, either on-campus or on-line.

Updated June 02, 2009: GWU is re-activating it's CoAEMSP accreditation as it partners with the District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department and the Alexandria Fire and EMS Department to establish a regional paramedic training program at the DCFEMS Academy. This will be under the CoAEMSP consortium model and requires a new self-study. Pilot basic-to-paramedic course is scheduled for Spring 2010 and restricted to DCFEMS and Alexandria employees.

Go back to Assistant Professor Ward’s faculty webpage: http://home.gwu.edu/~mikeward/