Prehospital Education

Is there a difference between "training" and "educating"? What kind of a primary EMS instructional program did you go through?

On the surface, there appears to be a stark difference between training and educating.  For most of us in EMS, we were trained, like a mule or a dog.  You do good, you get a treat (pass the class), you do bad, you get disciplined (read that - fail).  Although there is a place for the idea of rewards vs. fear and consequences, is the adult education environment where it should reside?

I always think of education as the classroom part of our schooling, and the training dynamic is what happens in our skills stations.  We might be surprised at what we find if we really look at what these words mean.

Webster's defines them this way:

• train - 3 a: to form by instruction, discipline, or drill; 3 b: to teach as to make fit, qualified, or proficient
• educate - 1 b: to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession

What then do we see about training and educating? They appear to each be composed of a part of the other - inexorably linked, as is our didactic education and skills training.