Explain your country’s paramedic education system

In the program where I teach in the US (specifically in NJ) here is the structure: A “two-year” Associate degree program where students have to be licensed EMTs already to be considered for admission. Total degree requirements are 63 credits (without the 7 credits for EMT). Students have the following 20 credits of pre-requisites: English 1&2, Math, A&P 1&2, and Psychology. Paramedic education is 43 credits. That is broken down into 250 classroom hours, 250 skills lab hours, a minimum of 420 hours of hospital clinical rotations and a minimum of 450 hours of paramedic rotations. (Because we are hours PLUS skills-based, students average about 1,100 hours of total clinical.) Students have to complete almost 1,200 benchmarks (skills demonstration, papers, certifications) compared to our other health profession colleagues, whose students average 150 benchmarks throughout their education. Most students take ~30 months to complete the degree.

In contrast, the minimum number of credits for a “two-year” registered nurse program is 38 credits and the average is 41.

Whenever I hear about other countries that have a 3-year Bachelor’s degree in Paramedicine, I always wonder how much is actual Paramedicine and how much is other courses. I also can’t convert the point-system to a credit equivalent for the life of me. I do know that most paramedic education worldwide uses the same textbooks in some limited national versions and that the care provided by paramedics/nurses/physicians in ambulances is almost identical in most nations worldwide, except in Japan, where their paramedics are EXTREMELY limited in clinical scope by law.