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Course Description

This online course is 36 learning hours over twelve weeks, including 7.5 hours of live online sessions. It is recommended that students spend a minimum of 3 hours each week on coursework. Students may choose to complete more hours of work on the course in order to explore the content in more depth.


This course concerns itself with understanding the variety of different fire service involvements within both fire-based and non-fire based Emergency Medical Systems (EMS), as well as appropriate medical oversite compliance systems necessary to meet modern care needs of the patient and community. By following best practices, the departments' emergency delivery will be to the highest standards, providing time-critical response together with effective patient care through strategically and geographically well-positioned appropriate fire stations and apparatus staffed by applicably equipped and trained emergency medical personnel. In many cases, this will be higher trained firefighters.

Course Outline

  • Week 1: What is an EMS System?
  • Week 2: Regulators and Accreditation Systems
  • Week 3: Fire EMS Delivery Models
  • Week 4: Fire EMS Systems (Continued)
  • Week 5: Fire EMS Management
  • Week 6: Quality Management and Benchmarking
  • Week 7: Professional Competency
  • Week 8: Education and Development
  • Week 9: Cost Budgeting
  • Week 10: Alternative Budget Systems
  • Week 11: World and North American EMS
  • Week 12: Canada's EMS Delivery Systems

What You Will Learn

Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to:

  • describe the EMS system in operation;
  • demonstrate the interrelationship or lack of each EMS system component;
  • review the different components of a prehospital EMS system;
  • appreciate the global and Canadian history of EMS;
  • describe the similarities and differences between systems;
  • identify the fire and EMS delivery profiles;
  • recognize the variations between countries, states and regions;
  • list the advantages and disadvantages of the EMS systems;
  • describe your fire department’s organizational culture;
  • analyze how your fire department culture affects your fire department’s EMS involvement;
  • state common principles of management; and
  • describe methodologies used in Fire/EMS organizations.

Notes

Fire Officer Certification: Is one of four required courses for Fire Officer IV. Before students can earn Fire Officer IV, they must have received Fire Officer III from the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development. All grades must be 70% or higher. Self-serve tracking of progress towards Fire Officer IV Accreditation is available. To request enrolment in the CE0100 Fire Officer IV Accreditation Track, email openlearning@dal.ca .

For more Fire Service Management courses click here.

The Faculty of OLCD recommends an intermediate level of English language proficiency for the most effective learning and participation in our online and face-to-face courses. A list of minimum recommended scores on some common English tests can be found on our website. If you have questions about your English language proficiency and ability to succeed in this course, please contact openlearning@dal.ca.

Prerequisites

Before taking this course, students should complete the Certificate in Fire Service Leadership. In some cases, special permission may be granted from the program director to take this as a stand-alone course.

Prerequisite: Completion of the "Certificate in Fire Service Leadership"

Recommended For

  • Students working toward or within decision making areas of their fire service.
  • Students who believe their fire service should be based upon the emergency needs of their community.
  • Members of the fire service who wish to better understand paramedicine educational systems.
  • Senior fire service leaders desirous of understanding the changing importance of EMS involvement.

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

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Enrol Now - Select a section to enrol in

Section Title
EMS Management and the Fire Department
Type
Online - Self-Paced
Dates
Sep 11, 2026 to Dec 04, 2026
Type
Online - Scheduled
Days
Thursday
Time
7:30PM to 9:00PM
Dates
Sep 24, 2026 to Nov 19, 2026
Schedule and Location
Total Learning Hours
36.0
Location
  • Online Campus - Atlantic Time
Instruction Delivery Method(s)
Course Fee(s)
Fee non-credit $1,275.00
Required Software
A webcam and microphone/headset will be required for the live sessions. This course requires a Dalhousie NetID. If you do not currently have a NetID, a NetID will be assigned to you, and—after registration—you will receive an email on how to claim your account. Once you have claimed your account, you will login to the Student Portal under the heading "I have a NetID Username and Password" on the far left of the login screen.

Section Notes

This course has scheduled written assignments and discussions within the term time frame. There will also be five facilitated online sessions - click on View Details for dates. *Please note: Live session dates and times may be subject to change, but will be finalized six weeks prior to course start date.

The course site will be open at 4:00 PM Atlantic Time on the course start date.

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