The Education Committee has completed a review of the renewal requirements for all members. This review included information obtained from a survey that went out to the Saskatchewan College of Paramedics (SCoP) membership, and reviews of licence renewal requirements of other paramedic regulators across Canada and of other health care regulators in Saskatchewan. Following this review, several changes have been made to our renewal requirements, now called the Professional Practice Program.
The changes to the Professional Practice Program will come into effect on January 1, 2023, for the 2024 licence renewal.
The core components of renewal: continuing education credits, skill assessments, mandatory certifications and the medication review have not changed. Changes have been made to each section to provide clarification and flexibility in expectation and requirements.
The changes to the Professional Practice Program include:
Skills Assessments
- Clarification around who can assess skills. The assessor must be an instructor in one of the listed programs and have expertise in the area with the skill within their scope of practice. The requirement of the assessor having the same licence level or higher has been removed. This will allow for more flexibility as to who can complete skill assessments
- The first aid instructor, Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) instructor, as well as Saskatchewan Polytechnic and Medavie HealthEd faculty were added to the list of instructors
- Criteria is now included on the forms to describe what is to be assessed and how the skill should be assessed
- Bag Valve Mask (BVM) and Peak Expiratory End Pressure (PEEP) were added to all levels (where included in the scope of practice)
Course Developers/Instructors
- This new form is for those who develop/instruct courses. This is in recognition for the work that goes into developing and/or instructing courses. They will receive the same number of credits as the course is worth
- This applies to anyone who develops a course which is approved for continuing education credits
- This does not apply to the instructors in mandatory certifications. Mandatory certification instructors will receive a maximum of 4 credits
Continuing Education (CE) Credits
- 20 credits are still required per year
- Credits will be assigned to 2 credits per 1 hour of instruction
- Credits will be assigned for the actual time spent in an educational session. Examples:
- An approved course up to 1 hour in length will receive 2 credits
- An approved session from 0800 to 1600 with an hour off for lunch would be 7 hours of educational time, 14 credits would be awarded for the day of instruction
- An approved 3-hour session would be 6 credits
- No partial credits will be assigned
- Courses will need to align to an area of the competency profile. A minimum of 10 credits must come from areas 4, 5, or 6, these areas relate directly to medical conditions and/or patient care
- Credits will be assigned for the actual time spent in an educational session. Examples:
Competency Profile Topic Areas (examples in brackets, not a full list)
Area 1 – Professional Responsibilities (ex. leadership, professionalism, medico-legal)
Area 2 – Communication (ex. verbal, nonverbal, written)
Area 3 – Health and Safety (ex. mine safety, scene safety, paramedic mental health)
Area 4 – Assessment and Diagnostics (ex. 3 lead application/interpretation, EtC02)
Area 5 – Therapeutics (ex. trauma care, airway days, changes to scope of practice)
Area 6 – Integration (ex. scenarios)
Area 7 – Transportation (ex. driving, air medical)
Area 8 – Health Promotion and Public Safety (ex. incident command)
- The full National Occupational Competency Profile (NOCP) can be accessed here: https://paramedic.ca/competencies/
- Mandatory mental health credits will continue, a minimum of 2 credits per year. Mental health courses can relate to practitioner mental health and well-being or specific mental health illnesses and the related management and/or therapies
- SCoP Council/Committee members will continue to receive credits for their work, a maximum of 4 credits per year
- The mandatory documentation course is worth 2 credits and falls under NOCP area 2. Documentation course >
- All courses where credits are requested will still be required to be pre-approved using the Professional Practice Program Credit Course Approval Form
- All courses approved in 2022 will have their credit values revised to align to this change for 2023
Medication Self-Review
- No changes to the medication self review. This will continue to be a self review and declaration
Additional information
- All members are expected to complete their online renewal submission themselves. Members should not be giving access to their member accounts and having others complete renewal on their behalf. Renewal includes several declarations that require completion by the member themselves
- The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Medavie Health Services – West both have training available for all SCoP members, regardless of where they work. These programs are currently at no cost to all SCoP members.
- How to access SHA courses >
- To set up an account with Medavie Health Services – West, please contact Carla Roy at carla.roy@MedavieHS.com
The Education Committee would like to thank the members of the review working group for their work and contribution to the evaluation of our renewal program.
Carla Roy, ACP
Noël Dunn, ACP
Jessica Heathcote, ACP
Questions should be directed to the Director of Professional Practice and Research at jen.williams@collegeofparamedics.sk.ca