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- HB14 allows emergency medical service workers to perform some procedures of nurses and doctors.
- The law aims to address nursing shortages by certifying "critical care medics" with additional training.
- Advocates highlight successful implementation in Kentucky and emphasize collaboration, not replacement, with existing medical staff.
WEST JORDAN — A new Utah law will allow some emergency medical service workers to provide the same care a doctor or nurse usually gives.
HB 14 was signed into law last week. CommonSpirit Health Mountain Region Director of Operations Crystal Albrecht advocated for the legislation. She used to run the emergency department at CommonSpirit Holy Cross Hospital — Jordan Valley.
She said the bill allows EMS workers to get an additional certification that allows them to perform more medical care. They need additional education and training to become a "critical care medic."
"As critical care medics in the emergency department, with the help of this bill, they can do all cares that nursing can do, and they can also do some procedures that physicians can do, like intubations," she said.
Albrecht said she thinks allowing certified medics to do more will help with the nursing shortage.
"I became aware of the nursing shortage that's projected over the next five to 10 years as the American population ages and I started being worried about how I was going to staff the emergency department," Albrecht said.
She said a sister hospital in Kentucky saw success when it started using critical care medics in its emergency department.
"I think that there are some concerns about replacing nursing or the emergency medical services being concerned about us pulling from their personnel, but our Kentucky sister hospital saw great, great success in both the nursing acceptance of this program, realizing that they had better nurse to patient ratios or medic to patient ratios," Albrecht said. "They also saw a huge increase in enrollments in medical school."
Retired firefighter and paramedic Chris Thurman said there's high demand to get the critical care certification already.
"Sometimes we age out of our profession, but we don't want to give up the paramedic side and the critical care paramedics don't want to give up that side, but this is an avenue for them to come back, bring their experience, bring their knowledge, help all of our staff, our nursing staff with that and be involved in patient care," he said.
Thurman said having critical care medics in the ER helps with patient care.
"The issue becomes on the things that aren't said, like we're bringing a patient from an environment that may not be the best home life, the car accident that we just brought him from, and we try to paint that picture for somebody who wasn't on scene or hasn't been in that particular situation," he said. "Now, you're talking to somebody who has been through these roads and been through these things with you, and those kind of unspoken things are accepted and understood."
He said this isn't a replacement for nurses.
"Nurses can't be replaced," Thurman said. "Paramedics can't be replaced either because we bring a whole different skill set and tools to the team."
After 31 years with Unified Fire Authority, he now works as the EMS coordinator for CommonSpirit Holy Cross Hospitals.
He and Albrecht said this is a way for medical care providers to collaborate more while helping with staffing shortages.
'We've had to rely on contract nursing to be able to fill all of our nursing spots," Albrecht said. "This will help a lot to be able to give the staffing support that our nurses and doctors need."
