• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.13-24
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• 2010

Objective : The purpose of this study is to understand the status of continuing education of the EMTs of the Korean fire department, to identify demand of them for content, method, and forms of the education, and to present basic data for developing more efficient, effective continuing education programs. Methods : The subjects of this study were 850 of the EMTs of the Korean fire department who work for fire stations located in Seoul and part of Gyeonggi-do and directly provide critical care in the field. The data was collected between February 8 and 28, 2010. Using SPSS 17.0 program, we obtained frequencies percentages, means, and standard deviations, and performed independent two sample t-test, one way ANOVA, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$. Results : 1) As for status of the existing continuing education for of the EMTs of the Korean fire department, in general, the hour of each education was "less than four hours" (51.2%), the instructors of the education were "doctors" (65.2%), the method of the education was "lecture" (83.3%), the material for the education was "educational materials and slides" (97.2%), and the results from the education were "not helpful in job" (55.1%). 2) The effects of the EMTs of the Korean fire department were mean 2.44(${\pm}.51$), the ability was mean 2.40(${\pm}.50$), and the attitude was mean 2.49(${\pm}.57$) points. 3) As for the demands of the EMTs of the Korean fire department on the next continuing education, they preferred "the advanced cardiac life support(ACLS)" ($2.64{\pm}.62$) most in subject content, "investigating the demands of 119 emergency medical technicians annually" (44.1%) in methods to select subjects of the continuing education, "doctors and professors of Department of Emergency Medical Technology" in instructors of the education (190 persons, or 39.9%), "lectures with practices" in methods of the education (30.1%), and "One per year" (41.6%) and "less than four hours" (67.2%) in the period and hours of the text continuing education they hope. Conclusion : The continuing education for the EMTs of the Korean fire department conducts without accepting the demands of the technicians, In planning of the next continuing education, the results of this study suggest that it is needed to develop more various and professional educational program by active acquisition of the demands of the technicians.