Recert

Recert is an online continuing education service for EMS and fire professionals, built around recertification. It serves two kinds of customer: individual EMTs, paramedics and firefighters who need hours to recertify, and agencies and departments that have to schedule, track and report on their crews' certifications. The About page says Recert "is brought to you by the Jones & Bartlett Learning Public Safety Group and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT)", and the footer identifies the Public Safety Group as an Ascend Learning Company. The course library sits inside the Public Safety Group's online catalog, next to its EMS and fire programs.

The About page describes Recert as a service "that offers engaging courseware mapped to a personalized recertification roadmap", designed to make meeting prehospital recertification requirements "more enjoyable and efficient" for practitioners "no matter where they live and work."

What the courses are like

The About page lists the formats as "game-based courses, interactive lectures, simulations, live-patient videos, and scenarios that take practitioners a step beyond traditional refresher content." The home page adds that every Recert course is interactive, from patient simulations to critical-thinking scenarios, and Recert says it aims to deliver "true continuing education that challenges learners by expanding on initial education curricula." Courses run on laptops, tablets or phones at any time of day. The medical director, Dr. David Vitberg, makes the case on the course library page that crews can take a module between calls or during a quiet night shift rather than coming off the street for classroom sessions.

The home page counts over 200 courses. The library page breaks that down further: hundreds of offerings for BLS and ALS prehospital providers, and more than 100 courses designed specifically for fire and rescue professionals. Subjects are Airway & Ventilation, Cardiovascular, EMS Operations, Fire & Rescue, Medical, OSHA & Human Resources, Pharmacology, Preparatory, Public Health, Refresher Courses, Shock & Resuscitation, Special Patient Populations and Trauma, with EMS and fire refresher courses grouped for people working through a full refresher.

The featured courses show the level of detail. EMS Patient Safety, a BLS/ALS EMS Operations course, covers identifying patient safety events, improving reporting and handling unsafe conditions. Oxygenation, a BLS Airway & Ventilation course, teaches recognizing adequate and inadequate breathing, identifying hypoxia and the AHA guidelines on oxygen therapy. Airway Management is a BLS Trauma offering drawn from NAEMT's PHTLS course, on causes of airway obstruction in trauma patients. Pediatric Behavioral Health is a BLS/ALS Public Health course, and Emergency Medical Care is a firefighter course on infection control, CPR, bleeding control, burns and shock. For pediatric calls, the library lists courses on pediatric assessment, shock, behavioral health, cardiac arrest, maltreatment, medical emergencies, resuscitation, seizures, transport and trauma, plus courses on children with special health care needs and children in disasters.

Fire courses cover firefighters, driver/operators, inspectors and marshals, instructors, investigators, fire officers, fire science (FESHE), hazardous materials and technical rescue, with current courses on building construction, community risk assessment, fire growth, and firefighter safety and survival. The library page says the fire content is endorsed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Where the content comes from

The library page names the content sources as NAEMT, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the home page says courses are built from programs such as PHTLS and PEPP. Recert has a medical director and an Editorial Advisory Board, and it recruits clinicians as authors: anyone with a course to present starts by completing a course proposal form, and the Editorial Advisory Board reviews every proposal. The author page pitches it as a chance to "become a virtual mentor to providers across the globe."

CAPCE approval

The home page states that "All Recert EMS courses are 100% CAPCE-approved" and calls the content "Nationally Accepted." The purchase table makes the distinction clear: the individual annual pass, single courses and the institutional pass all show CAPCE credit offered, while the refresher packages and specialty content packages show none.

Prices for individuals

The purchase table lists two individual options:

• All-Inclusive Access, $61.95, a full year of access to 200+ courses, aimed at people with many hours or courses needed to recertify
• Individual Courses, $7.00 each, for satisfying specific requirements

The course library page adds that coupon code REC21CE gives additional savings on the subscription at checkout. Both individual options include Recert's free tools to track and manage recertification, and anyone can create a free CE tracking profile, whose dashboards the home page says manage "All Your State & National Requirements."

Tools and packages for agencies

For employers, the home page says Recert "takes the hassle out of employee certifications and compliance with customizable reporting, scheduling, and tracking tools." Administrators can schedule providers' recerts, focus training and remediation where it is needed, and track all state and national recertification needs, from online to classroom learning. Dr. Vitberg calls it "a very efficient way for departments to ensure that their providers are getting education and training that aligns with the needs of their department."

Three institutional options appear in the purchase table:

• All-Inclusive Access for institutions, $41.95 to $51.95 with a quote on request, pairing the course content with reporting, scheduling and tracking tools
• EMS, Fire & Educator Refresher Packages, $39.95 to $49.95, for institutions building customizable packages of courses, content and assessments to recertify personnel
• Specialty Content Packages, $29.95 to $49.95, exclusive HR and OSHA courses for administrators, supervisors and staff who must run that training

The two package types are deployed through the Navigate platform and, per the table's footnote, do not report to the Recert app. Agencies can request a demo or a quote. Support runs through a contact page, tech support, a help and FAQ section and a page of state recertification information, and the site lists 1-800-832-0034 for anyone having trouble accessing it.

Who it suits

Recert suits EMTs, AEMTs and paramedics who need CAPCE-approved hours and prefer interactive, scenario-based modules to reading. The $61.95 annual pass fits someone with a full recertification cycle to cover, while $7 single courses fit a provider filling a few specific gaps. Firefighters and fire officers get a separate fire catalog, and agencies get the tracking and reporting layer, which makes it a reasonable training library for a department that wants to assign recertification work and see who is current.

The main caveat is in the packages: the refresher and specialty packages carry no CAPCE credit and do not feed Recert's tracking, so an agency counting on both should look at the all-inclusive institutional access instead.