The Paramedic Foundation and Paramedic Health Solutions have teamed up to create a national curriculum with uniform educational standards for community paramedicine. This curriculum works to address the gaps in traditional prehospital provider training surrounding public health, long-term disease management, cultural competency and research.

The curriculum covers the higher-education spectrum from a certificate to a doctoral program. It has six levels, including primary care technician for EMT (PCT), community paramedic technician (CPT), community paramedic clinician (CPC), community paramedic practitioner (CPP), community paramedic advanced practitioner (CPAP) and community paramedic consultant (DCP). There are also two transition programs within the curriculum that incorporate a currently practicing provider’s experience.

Although the designers of the curriculum see paramedicine moving toward higher levels of education, they created two programs that award a certificate or technical diploma to meet the minimum needs of providers already in the field. The first, primary care technician for EMT, requires 48 hours of total learning and introduces students to the social determinants of health, with an emphasis on health disparities, prevention and linking patients to other community programs. The second, community paramedic technician, requires 88 hours of total learning and introduces students in more detail to the concepts driving population health, with a heavy focus on integrating with local stakeholders.

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