[docrodg]

They have been trying thee expanded scope in the US in some cities lately to try and reduce ER load. Us medics doing the eval on-scene and contacting med control so the doc can prescribe proper meds etc. for the patient if they are non-emergent. It has helped quite a bit.

Problem is, even with equal time in education, and years of good experience us medics still do not even get recognized as licensed, only as certified. Then insult to injury every three years we have to go thru a refresher course to re-certify rather than CE credits as in other similar jobs. Yet where I am we still have to do CE credits every 6 months. Plus work side by side with docs in Surgical, peds, ICU, and ER every 3 years. I enjoy the extra time and don't mind the education, we need to keep up on that stuff anyway, but some folks just think we know how to put on band-aids.