April 8, 2009

Hinkle legislation making paramedic-to-nursing
transition easier passes Senate
'This is a win-win for medical professionals and the public at large,' says Hinkle

Legislation passed the state Senate yesterday that would make it easier for paramedics and other emergency health care workers to transition into a nursing career.

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, and prime sponsor of the bill, said it was a way to address the state's increasing need for highly-skilled nurses and also to provide new career opportunities for experienced paramedics.

"I was a paramedic for 17 years," Hinkle said.  "I've seen some very highly-trained, highly-qualified and highly-motivated individuals just get burnt out by the emergency responder aspect of the job.  We're wasting a lot of talent and experience by not having alternative pathways to other medical professions in place.  If we have applicable training and applicable skills that are transferable to other disciplines, we need to take advantage of that.  This is a win-win for medical professionals and the public at large. 

Hinkle's bill, House Bill 1808, directs the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) to convene a faculty workgroup to identify course equivalencies or skill competencies between paramedic training programs and nursing programs.

The workgroup will include faculty from a paramedic program, an associate nursing program, a four-year nursing program, and representatives from the Washington Center for Nursing and the Washington State Nursing Association.

The workgroup must report back their findings to the SBCTC by July 1, 2010.

"We already have a lot of interest from community and technical colleges in this endeavor," Hinkle said.  "And we have an obvious need for future health care providers.

"There are some extremely skilled paramedics out there that want to change career paths but can't take time off for the required schooling," Hinkle continued.  "And frankly, they can't imagine starting over at ground zero.  How do you tell someone who's spent the last ten or 15 years saving lives and practicing emergency medical procedures that they have to now go sit in a classroom to 'book learn' what they've been putting into action?  We certainly don't want to eliminate required course work, but we should place more emphasis on similarities in skill competencies, and that's what this bill does."

House Bill 1808 passed both the House and Senate unanimously and now awaits action by Gov. Gregoire.

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