The EMS test, tougher than NY’s bar exam, just got a little easier
New York City has one of the toughest paramedic tests in the nation. Almost a third of prospective paramedics fail the exam on their first try, according to the agency that oversees the exam. That’s even harder than the state’s bar exam, which only about 20 percent of would-be lawyers flunk.
Starting Sept. 13, the test may be a little easier: Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee (REMAC) hopes to improve test results by revising the scoring weight of scenario questions, which previously made up just one-sixth of the exam but could cause a paramedic to fail the test.
With the old test, “20 percent of the questions, if you failed that section, you failed the entire exam. Now every question has the same weight,” said Dr. Josef Schenker, REMAC chair, at a Sept. 19 meeting.
A mistake on the scenarios could fail a applicant even with an otherwise perfect score, according to Marie Diglio, executive director of operations for REMAC. That was preventing qualified paramedics from being certified.
“If you make a mistake in a scenario in step one, all the answers following it would be wrong,” Diglio said. “Those questions, we felt, were being weighted unfairly.”
The exam is meant to evaluate the skill of paramedics based on their knowledge of protocols, procedures and dosages from more than 300 pages of documents.
“It’s extremely hard,” Lt. Paramedic Danny Keegan of FDNY EMS Station 55 said in an interview. “There’s a lot of very specific information you have to know. And the only way to do that is memorize it.”
Diglio said the minimum passing grade is still 80 percent, but now all of the test questions will be given equal weight in the final score.
“It’s not like they’re getting a real break on this. If they really mess up, they can still fail the test,” she said. “We don’t let people work in New York City unless they know what they’re doing.”
REMAC is one of the two required exams for paramedics in New York City, Keegan explained, with the other administered through the State Department of Health. The 120-question, multiple choice REMAC exam must be retaken every three years. The state exam covers protocols approved by the New York Department of Health, while REMAC’s exam is specific to New York City, with an emphasis on city-specific issues such as preparation for large-scale disasters, Diglio said.
Unlike medical professionals such as nurses, EMS personnel are certified instead of licensed, which means they are required to retake the test every three years. Protocols, on which paramedic training and testing are based, are updated throughout the year by a committee of doctors, paramedics, researchers and other medical professionals.
As a result, paramedics must take at least 72 hours of continuing medical education annually, said Paramedic Justin O’Grady of EMS Station 55 in the Bronx. In a recent update, for example, REMAC changed how medics can administer intranasal Narcan in case of overdose in response to the recent opioid epidemic.
“It’s always changing. It’s a constant learning process,” O’Grady said. “It should be hard. If we don’t know this stuff and mess something up, it could kill you.”
