Rationale for Onsite Program: Allied Health

(120 Total Students Onsite – Monday thru Saturday)

The Respiratory Therapy National Accrediting Body, The Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC), the Paramedic Accrediting Body, the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP) and the New York State Department of Health mandate face to face instruction because of the procedures the students must master to become safe and competent practitioners. To properly teach a mandated clinical skill or procedure, didactic instruction must be given first to the student. Then the instructor demonstrates the skill or procedure to the student utilizing the various pieces of equipment followed by the student practicing the skill or procedure to demonstrate their competence. Finally, there are testing sessions where the instructor watches the student perform and evaluates their mastery of the procedure before allowing the students to attend hospitals and practice on patients. The costly apparatus utilized in these mandated procedures such as CPR manikins, mechanical ventilators, blood gas analyzers, pulmonary function testing equipment and highly sophisticated human patient simulators are not available to students at home. They must come to the BMCC laboratories and they must manipulate the devices to attain the necessary laboratory and clinical skills and competencies.

The respiratory therapy courses offered this semester are RTT 100, RTT 101, RTT 301, RTT 302, RTT 310 and RTT 320.

• RTT 100 consists of 2 hours lecture and 6 hours of lab. The course is scheduled in the N452 lecture hall where the students will receive the 2 hours of lecture over the period of Monday thru Thursday. The room will also be used as a holding area while we move the students after lecture to N762, N767 and N777 to complete their laboratory assignments. Since the lectures are divided over the 4 day period, it wouldn’t make sense pedagogically to attempt to do those lectures online as the laboratory immediately follows the lecture.
• RTT 101 consists of 2 hours of lab and the course is scheduled in the N451 lecture hall where the students will receive a minimum amount of lecture. The room will be used as a holding area while we move the students after the lecture to N762, N767 and N777 to complete their laboratory assignments.
• RTT 301 consists of 2 hours lecture and 2 hours lab. Pedagogically you can’t give the lecture online and do the lab later on. During the lecture the instructor is speaking about the mechanical ventilator and demonstrating various aspects of the machine that can’t be shown using ZOOM. The students need to be present to follow along and ask questions.
• RTT 302 consists of 16 hours of lab that have to be done in the lab at BMCC and the affiliated hospitals.
• RTT 310 is a 2 credit, 2 hour class where the instructor has to teach and also demonstrate cardio-respiratory physiology using models found at BMCC. The class only meets on Friday from 8:00 to 9:40 AM and the RTT 301 class meets right after at 10:00 AM. We couldn’t do one class by ZOOM and the other at BMCC. This is a tightly controlled program of 73 credits.
• RTT 320 is a 1 hour lecture, 2 hour lab. Some of the lectures are done in our highly sophisticated pulmonary function laboratory demonstrating the equipment.

The paramedic courses offered this semester are EMC 100, EMC 101, EMC 102 and EMC 301.

• EMC100 class, held on Tuesday and Thursdays nights from 6-9:30 pm and Saturdays, 10-3:30, we have already adjusted the schedule to have all Thursday night lectures on Zoom. Most Tuesday night lectures will also be on Zoom, except when we need to demonstrate equipment in small groups and have group assignments with the equipment as learning activities. Saturdays are all hands on skills for the students with a proctored exam. We need to meet not only for New York State and Accreditation skills requirements but for State paperwork, CPR skills and testing, uniforms, FIT testing, handing out PPE for clinicals, and final Practical Skills testing.
• EMC101 class, held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 6:30-8:30 pm – we have already adjusted the schedule to have all Monday and Thursday night lectures on Zoom (with four Thursday exceptions).
• EMC102 class, held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8:30-10:30 pm – we have already adjusted the schedule to meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting at 6 pm and ending at 8 pm. We need to meet not only for New York State and Accreditation skills requirements but to practice their skills, CPR skills and testing, FIT testing, handing out PPE for clinicals, and final Practical Skills testing. Any skills, such as oral scenarios and EKG interpretation are already scheduled to take place online on Zoom and not in person.
• EMC301 – this all takes place on the clinicals.