Percom's EMT-P Student Announcements

In an attempt to speed up the process of getting actual course completion certificates to individual students, we are piloting a change where we will start emailing the scanned course completion certificates, letters and attached informational docuements to students rather then mailing them. The scanned CCC will contain the signature and can be printed off on your end. This will allow us to get them to you a few days sooner and have less chance of them being lost between us and students, which seems to be happening more frequently since the last round of changes with the U.S. Postal Service. Any student who HAS to have an original from our office can request it when our secretary emails you the scanned documents.

For those of you who live in the East Texas area or who plan to travel to that area for rotations to stay with family or friends or who just want to rotate in East Texas, we now have the availability to sign you up for rotations with Kilgore College, our sponsor.  This is an all or none arrangement.  When it is time for you to do your rotations, we would register you with Kilgore College's EMS education program for their clinical and field sections ONLY. You would be a joint student between the two programs but would pull all rotations through Kilgore College as a student (the same agreement as we have now with TEEX).  Once you are complete, they would notify us you are clear, and course completion is still through PERCOM.  So your choices for rotations are through PERCOM sites, or TEEX or Kilgore College.

When it is time fo you to submit all your clinical paperwork and documentation to Mr. Royder,our Clinical Coordinator, please make sure you discuss this with him and fill out the proper paperwork.   This paperwork will be posted under a button on this page very soon but in the meantime, it can be obtained through Mr. Royder at clinicals@percomonline.com .

We are in the process of making more changes at PERCOM as our company grows. Please be sure you are cleared by your Lead Instructor for your Pharmacology and ECG Qualifying Exams and email that instructor to schedule those exams.  Then after you have completed your homework assignments, research exams and all mandatory chat rooms, you should email your lead instructor to schedule your final exam.  Available test times are posted on the calendar under the Final Exam button on this page and all times are in CST/DST. We can only schedule one student at a time so send several choices of dates and times from which Pat can assign your test. If you need your test after 5 p.m. CST/DST or on a weekend, these MAY be available but will incur an extra charge of $25 for an After-Hours Fee.

Remember, you MUST pass your ECG and Pharm Qualifying Exams to be eligible to go to your Paramedic Days 1 and 2 Practice Session. Minimum passing score on these two exams is 80.

Please watch the PERCOM skills calendar for new Practice and Testing Session postings for 2012. We have begun posting them and will continue to post new ones as we receive the dates from instructors over the next several weeks. The Skills Calendar is located under the "Calendar" button on the main PERCOM webpage at http://percomonline.com .

Remember, you MUST complete Skills Days 1 and 2 and THEN 3 and 4 and THEN testing for days 5 and 6 in that order and you MUST have completed THROUGH the Cardiology portion of the course in its entirety, including passing your Pharmacology and ECG Qualifying Exams to be eligible to RSVP for Skills Days 1 and 2.  We have made some changes on previously posted session for this course on the calendar to change some exiting sessions to start again at Days 1 and 2 since so many of you need to START the Skills Practice process.  Be sure to check the calendar closely for these days and changes.

We seem to have had a rash of students recently who have become forceful, demanding, and some have even become belligerent to one or more members of the PERCOM staff either by telephone, email or in person.  Some students have become "testy" because they want to complete course or clinical requirements THEIR way and not by policies set by either PERCOM or any of its affiliates.  While most of our students have and continue to demonstate professionalism, courtesy and respect to our instructors, coordinators, staff and all affiliate personnel, the ones who have NOT been demonstrating that professionalism are causing problems that won't be tolerated.  ALL requirements listed in our Student Handbook, course syllabus and schedule, clinical and field rotation paperwork, coursework and as listed on this website or by instructors, coordinators, program director or affiliates of our program will be followed to the letter without complaint.  Questions are welcomed but demands, inappropriate comments, complaints about having to complete the requirements as set forth by PERCOM or its affiliates, etc WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.  ALL PERCOM students are expected to demonstrate the professionalism and behaviors that WILL be expected of you as an EMS PROFESSIONAL in the workforce or volunteer workforce.  Anything less is totally unacceptable and WILL be grounds for dismissal from the program!  Working together in a positive manner to resolve issues without conflict is always best for everyone concerned. 

I thought this class might be interested in reading this article distributed by JEMS today. Be sure to copy and paste the whole link to your browser.

http://www.jems.com/article/patient-care/identifying-diseases-mimic-str?utm_source=Go+Forward+Media+eMail%2C+Powered+by+Bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Identifying+Diseases+that+Mimic+Strokes&utm_content=programdirector%40percomonline.com&utm_campaign=JEMS+eNews+03-15-11

The Advanced Chat Room time has been moved up to 7:30 p.m. CST/DST effective immediately.  Be aware this is set to begin as soon as the Basic Chat Room ends at 7:30 so if you log in early, please wait patiently until 7:30 for Mr. Gandy to begin the Advanced Chat Room.  Please do not interfere with the Basic Chat if it is still underway until 7:30.  Remember, you MUST attend AND PARTICIPATE IN three Advanced Chats to be eligible to graduate from this course.

You may begin clinical and field rotations for this course as soon as all of your clinical documents, forms and other items are correctly on file with the PERCOM Clinical Liaison and your registration has been completed by the Liaison with TEEX.  However, you will only be allowed to complete Emergency Room, Operating Room and Respiratory Department rotations prior to completed Practice Session 2 and having completed THROUGH the Cardiology portion of the course and successfully have passed both the Pharmacology and ECG Qualifying Exams.

You must take these two exams by proctored webinar online by appointment.  Use the instructions posted on this Student Announcements Page for scheduling your Final Exam to schedule your appointments for these tests.  Please remember that requests to schedule tests after office hours, weekends or on holidays will incur an extra fee if approved.  Also remember that you may not complete more than the following clinical rotations prior to successfully passing these exams: OB, OR, Respiratory, or ED.

Paramedic 2 students must start the registration process for clinical and field rotations immediately following initial course entry. This process takes time to set up with multiple documents, and you cannot schedule for rotations until ALL documents and required items are submitted to clinicals@percomonline.com in Adobe pdf format or faxed to him at 866-941-5643.  These documents are available under the TEEX button on the left side of this page.  Once your documentation is in, please e-mail Mr. Dinsmore at the above email to verify that all your documents are in and requirements are met so that he can facilitate your scheduling through TEEX.

Students who require block scheduling with a Practice or Testing Session MUST have all documents and required items back to Mr. Dinsmore at least six weeks prior to the desired Practice or Testing Session to ensure that clinicals can be block scheduled to immediately follow the session.  Incomplete paperwork submissions or submissions after 6 weeks prior will delay clinical scheduling.

If you are having ANY difficulty logging in to the JB Course site or any other technical difficulties, please email programdirector@percomonline.com.  Do NOT email JBCourse' technical support. MOST of the issues are resolved easily on PERCOM's end, as most of the issues are related to incorrect user names or passwords, or minor tech issues related to PERCOM material, not JBCourse material.  If we are unable to resolve the issue, WE will contact JBCourse and copy the e-mail to you to help resolve the issue.  Also, if you are utilizing an email account through yahoo.com, be aware that yahoo email has some very strange spam filters that for some of our students block emails from us all together, for others it puts them in the trash or spam or junk mail folders, and for others it seems to work fine.  If you have NOT been receiving answers to your e-mails from us, then please check your spam/junk/trash folders. If you see no response there, it may be necessary to find you a different email account carrier.  Hotmail is a free e-mail service as well, and we don't see the same issues with it that we see with Yahoo.  Please notify us if you find it necessary to change your e-mail account.

The NREMT is kept apprised by Pearson VUE, the exam deliverer, of any incidents involving students who are turned away for any reason when they show up to take their exam. The most frequent reason for being turned away (nearly 50%) involve IDs that do not match the student information on file. These incidents can easily be avoided! MAKE SURE that the name you put on your application to NREMT online MUST be the same as the legal name on the ID you plan to use at the test site. You should pull out your government issued photo ID (typically a driver's license) that you plan to use and copy the exact name as it appears on your ID! You should be sure you take the same ID with you to the test site on the day of your exam.

Due to webinar testing and identification potential issues, effective immediately ALL students must scan a copy of your DL or other government issued photo ID card and email it to the Course Coordinator at programdirector@percomonline.com   .  A faxed copy will not be accepted as fax typically does not provide good enough photo quality to be able to use it for ID purposes to allow you to take your Final Exam.  Thank you.

Effective immediately, ALL Final Exams must be taken on appointment with the Program Coordinator based on available appointment times posted on the Webinar schedule under the Webinar button.  You MUST have a broadband internet connection, webcam, microphone and speakers on a computer with Mozilla Firefox as the internet browser for this exam.  All exam appointments must be made a MINIMUM of 1 week advance notice based on the posted webinar schedules. 

Also effective immediately (except for anyone who has an outstanding retest as of this posting), a $50 fee will be charged for ALL retests.  This fee has become necessary due to the significant one-on-one time it takes to allow you the capability of taking this test on appointment and from a location of your choosing rather than having to attend a proctored site.  However, the cost of the retest was not included in your base tuition price so it has to be added.  If you fail your final exam and must retest, you will be sent an invoice for each retest appointment.  There are only THREE attempts allowed total on Final Exam, with mandatory approved tutoring at your expense required between the 2nd and 3rd attempts.

All current
students who are not currently certified in Texas but plan to apply for
Texas certification should go to this website and read the information
and follow instructions regarding criminal history assessments
necessary to gain certification. This process takes time, and you
should do this NOW - do not wait until you are done with your course. 
The link is: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/EMSTRAUMASYSTEMS/CrimHxJan2010.shtm .