Table 2.
Course length and core curriculum content for Tanzania EMS short courses.
| Basic ambulance provider | Basic ambulance attendant | Community first aid | Emergency medical services dispatcher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of course | 6 weeks | 4 weeks | 5 days | 2 weeks |
|
| ||||
| Core content | Introduction to the EMS profession | Introduction to prehospital care | First aid basics | Community first aid |
| Overview of basic anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology | Driving safety and emergency traffic rules | Cardiac and choking emergencies | Introduction to EMS dispatch | |
| Basic life support and the “ABC's” | Scene safety, lifting, and patient movement | Common illnesses and injuries | Telecommunication and communication essentials | |
| Patient assessment | Daily ambulance checklist | Patient movement, transport, and transfer | EMS dispatch stress | |
| Prehospital trauma care | Infection prevention control | Basic medical dispatch | ||
| Medical emergencies | Introduction to EMS dispatch | EMS dispatch protocols | ||
| Transport operations, vehicle extrication, special rescue | Basic life support and the “ABCs” | Dispatch life support | ||
| Psychiatric emergencies | Haemorrhage control | |||
| Environmental emergencies and toxicology | Incident management, Mass causality incidents, and triage concepts | |||
| Paediatrics | Environmental emergencies and toxicology | |||
| Obstetrics and neonatal care | Psychiatric emergencies | |||
| Incident management, Mass causality incidents, and triage concepts | ||||