Lindsay:
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I want to be sure I provide clarity here for everyone. Every camp is not accredited and the Boy Scouts do their own accreditation process. Accreditation is a voluntary process and does not hold “legal” weight that your state law and state camp health requirements do for camp operations. Accreditation is a statement to the public that a camp is demonstrating a basic level of care and safety as part of their operations.
Please note, that in most states an EMT can only practice as an EMT under the direction of an emergency medicine physician associated with the EMS program to which they are employed. Please check your state regulations regarding EMT scope of practice. Therefore, at camp, they most likely cannot function as an EMT as they are not under the direction of the emergency medicine physician. Please have any of your EMT’s confirm this as well.
This means that most EMT’s function as unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs) at camp. They can perform delegated tasks as directed by an RN (or higher licensure) but they cannot perform activities that require decision-making or a judgment call for care. EMTs can be very helpful but they have a very narrow scope of practice and we must be careful to not assume that their EMT skills are applicable at camps unless your state has some unusual regulations. I can’t recall the regulations in every state, so be sure to understand your state laws for the safety of your camp operations.
Best to you all
Tracey Gaslin
