The 43rd Annual Virginia EMS Symposium, scheduled for November 8th through 12th, 2023, is one of the nation's premier educational opportunities for EMS providers and Registered Nurses to obtain continuing education and network. Each year, more than 1500 registrants choose from over 350 different programs over the 5-day event. National and local educators participate to make this event one of the top pre-hospital educational opportunities in the country. The Symposium has multiple tracks covering Administration, Airway, Respiration, Ventilation, Cardiology, Critical Care, Educator, Heath & Safety, Leadership & Management, Medical, MIH-CP, Operations, Pediatric and Trauma. Sessions generally run 1 hour with the exception of our specialty classes that vary in length from 3 hours up to a total of 24 hours.
The Symposium Call for Presentation Web Portal allows you to submit proposals for the annual Virginia EMS Symposium. Once you set up your account, you will be able use this portal to submit and keep track of the status of your proposals as well as review, update and submit previous submissions. You can even start a proposal and save it to finish later if necessary. Once your proposal is submitted, it will be reviewed by the EMS Symposium Committee. If selected, you will be notified by a member of the Virginia Office of EMS.
Note: Prior to clicking the "Submit To Committee" button on the summary page, your application is considered incomplete. You must enter all required information and click the "Submit To Committee" button in order for your proposal to be considered by OEMS.
Virginia EMS Symposium categories allow for didactic as well as psychomotor activities and encourage faculty to include appropriate innovative information as part of the continuing education program. Hands-on classes are always popular! Educational categories include:
Administrative: These programs are typically Virginia specific offered by the Virginia Office of EMS that pertains to the Virginia EMS system.
Airway, Respiration, Ventilation:The Airway, Respiration, Ventilation category provides topics that involve the pathophysiology of ventilation, respiration and the use of airway, oxygenation, ventilation devices in the management of airway, oxygenation, ventilation compromise.
BLS Academy: The Academy is specifically designed for EMTs to comply with category 1 (NCCR) requirements for recertification.
Cardiology: Cardiology addresses the anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology of the cardiovascular system including risk factors and prevention strategies. This track addresses complex issues including but not limited to stroke, acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, hypertensive emergencies, vascular disorders, and cardiac rhythm disturbances.
Educator: Whether a novice or experienced educator, this track is for educators who desire access to the latest in educational methodology, alternative teaching methods, student motivation, engagement and interaction. Tips and tricks on how to design your curriculum and evaluation tools to enable your students to succeed are presented.
Health and Safety: Health and Safety provides information on provider health and safety as it relates to pre incident, incident, and post incident activities, including (but not limited to) physical fitness, nutritional health, ambulance safety/design, impact of shift work, and roadway incident safety.
Leadership and Management: Leadership provides tools and techniques for EMS management and supervisors. It is also appropriate at the provider level to share valuable information that will help with their upward mobility and career planning at the EMS Agency level.
Medical: Medical applies assessment findings with principles of epidemiology and pathophysiology to formulate a field impression and implement a comprehensive/disposition plan for a patient with a medical emergency.
Operations: In addition to offering information to assist with the day-to-day operations of the EMS agency, topics include At Risk Populations, Pediatric Transport, Safety, Affective Characteristics, Crew resource Management and Research as well as other topics included in the 2016 NCCP.
Pediatric: This track separates out general pediatric trauma, medical, and airway classes into a single track so that these highly sought after topics can be easily found. Note that with the Virginia CE program now mirroring the National Registry, many of the pediatric topics are included in the Trauma, Medical, Airway - Ventilation - Oxygenation, and Operations area numbers.
Trauma: Trauma applies assessment findings with principles of epidemiology and pathophysiology to formulate a field impression and implement a comprehensive/disposition plan for a patient with a trauma related emergency.
We hope you will consider submitting a presentation proposal for the 43rd Annual Virginia EMS System. We would love you to join our EMS family.