Results are in: rough data in new post and copied here.
Alright so I have gathered the data and have some rough numbers. Most of the data comes from here, which gave me a much better sample group I feel then just using school (which would have been more one sided I feel).
I had 52 responses. Of that, 17 are EMT-B, 6 are EMT-I, and 29 are Paramedics. Of that 53, 19 are EMS instructors.
Of that, 39 went to a program that did not use ambulances for classroom use. 13 went to a program that did. Of the 52, 9 had a program that had an ambulance simulator.
Of the people that said yes, 10 felt that the ambulance use enhanced their program, 3 said no. The scale 1-10 on how often used varied from 1 to 8, average being 3.6. The average confidence on first ambulance ride outside of classroom (ride along or full crew member) was 6.07. When asked if respondents felt if the added expensive of an ambulance was worthwhile to the program, 10 said yes, 3 said no.
Of the responded that answered no if their program used ambulances, 23 said they felt the quality of education would increase with ambulance use, while 16 said no. 22 said the added expense is worthwhile, while 17 said no. Confidence on first ride was 4.95.
I did have a page for instructors to answer, but it didn't link right. I can infer from their responses for the page that missed, as it was mostly redundant questions anyways.
I have and received permission from the mods to post this.
I am a paramedic student, and part of my current internship is an original research project. I have put together a survey on the use of ambulances in an education setting. For the purpose of the survey, ambulances are only considered if they are fully operated by the students. Otherwise, ambulances are just considered an ambulance. I would love responses from every level and for police and fire medics also.
The survey can be found link removed.
Feel free to pass it along, the more responses I get, the better. Feel free to leave comments here or message me. I did not leave a comment box in the survey just to keep the data easier to compile. When I "finish" the research I will gladly publish the results.
For those interested in the background, the program I am has a fleet of 6 ambulances, some of them quiet old. As they tend to be donated to us, they can be pretty beat up. Between instructors and students, we do our best to keep them working. The main use for them is a class the program offers to EMTs that uses them for BLS scenarios where crews respond to calls. The ambulances allow us to respond all around campus and in the surrounding area. Our student association also occasionally uses them when providing medical standby for events and for show and tell at schools. This also offers an increased presence for the school and advertising in the metro area we are located. However, as of late they have become the subject to a few different conversations if they are worthwhile to the program.
I for one feel they offer an incredible learning opportunity for the fresh EMTs in our program. The class that uses them are designed to give students the base knowledge on ambulance operation and running BLS calls so that they do not have to start with zero experience in the required internship. That being said, they are expensive to upkeep and can become a liability. While it is amazing having a huge fleet, it may be more worthwhile to cull the fleet down and update or replace with newer rigs. The survey is to answer the if they offer something worthwhile to students. Moving forward, the project will potentially move to what is the most cost effective approach to aquiring and maintaining a fleet.