Bill > A432

Introduced Session

This bill streamlines certification standards for emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The bill amends current law to provide that the academic coursework, clinical training, field experience, and any other instruction, experience, or training that is required for EMT-Basic certification, combined, is not to exceed 90 hours. In addition, the academic coursework, clinical training, field experience, and any other instruction, experience, or training that is required for any additional certification that is both regulated by the Commissioner of Health (commissioner) and within the scope of practice of an individual who is certified as an EMT-Basic, combined, is not to exceed 30 hours. Under the bill, a training agency that offers an EMT-Basic training program will be ineligible for certification or recertification by the commissioner if the combined academic coursework, clinical training, field experience, and any other instruction, experience, or training that is required to complete the training program exceeds 90 hours. An EMT-Basic training program, alone, can last a minimum of 190 hours. It is the sponsor's belief that these requirements are needlessly lengthy and burdensome. As a result, many are choosing to not enter the EMT field, which has created a dire shortage of EMTs in this State and imperiled the health and welfare of New Jersey's citizens. This bill removes these burdens and places New Jersey in line with other states that have similarly advanced and streamlined their EMT certification processes in order to attract a sufficient number of candidates to the EMT field to help ensure the health and welfare of the citizens of those states.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Bob Auth (R)*,  Vicky Flynn (R),  Gerry Scharfenberger (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document