Investigation of the Present Situation and the Further Development of the Curriculum Framework for Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) Education in Korea

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We investigated current dispatcher education requirements and proposed how to further improve and develop the EMD education curriculum in Korea. METHODS: The contents of EMD training programs from the US were used in the development of the questionnaire used to investigate the status of EMD education in Korea. The Delphi method was used to obtain expert consensus on which specific training objectives to include, how many hours would be required, who was qualified to receive the training, and how to confirm their successful qualification. RESULTS: A consensus of the experts was made for core educational objectives, the appropriate number of education hours, qualifications for trainers, passing marks for the exams, and the format of re-education as follows The didactic education time requirement was 18 hours and the experiential education time requirement was 10 hours. The target qualification requirement for trainees was EMT level 1, and they were required to have an experience of firstaid as a prerequisite. The minimum annual re-education time was 8 hours (61.1%). The passing mark for examinations was 70.0 (median, IQR 65.0 - 70.0) for the didactic test and 70.0 (median, Interguatile range [IQR] 60.0 - 80.0) for the experiential test. The format of the required re-education included both comprehensive and individual forms. CONCLUSION: We propose the core contents of EMD education should be based on the results of the expert consensus.