What if continuing education felt less like clicking through slides and more like stepping into a call with a crew you wanted to follow?
DistanceCME is exploring whether clinically accurate storytelling could make EMS continuing education more engaging and memorable. Before moving beyond the concept stage, we want to hear from EMS professionals.
A fictional concept sample
The following original scene was created only to help readers imagine story-driven CE. It is not part of an announced course or series.
Scene One: The Lift Assist
“Medic 14, respond priority three for a lift assist. Seventy-two-year-old male, conscious and breathing.”
Ana Cole glanced at her partner as Devin Shaw eased the ambulance away from the curb. No lights. No siren. The notes said the caller only needed help getting her husband back into his chair.
Ten minutes later, Ana knelt beside Mr. Mercer on the living-room carpet. He was alert, embarrassed, and insisting he had simply lost his balance. His skin was warm and dry. The pulse oximeter displayed 98 percent.
“See?” he said. “I’m fine.”
Across the room, his wife pressed two fingers against her temple. “He didn’t faint,” she said. “He just got dizzy. We both have some kind of bug.”
Devin stopped beside the doorway. The carbon-monoxide monitor clipped to the response bag chirped once. Then it sounded a steady alarm.
Ana looked from the monitor to Mrs. Mercer, then toward the dog lying unusually still beneath the kitchen table. The call had just changed.
“Devin, get everyone outside and request the fire department and another ambulance,” she said. “I’ll start oxygen.”
Mr. Mercer stared at the normal number glowing on Ana’s pulse oximeter. “But you said my oxygen was good.”
Ana reached for the mask. She had only a few seconds to explain why that reassuring number might not mean what he thought it meant.
Would you learn this way?
Stories can place clinical judgment in context and invite learners to notice details, priorities, and patient communication in a new way.
This preview is provided for feedback only and does not award continuing education credit.
If a future story-driven option met applicable CE requirements, would this format appeal to you? Please share your opinion below.
