EMS/EMT Resources

For EMS and EMT professionals, staying current with all-hazards and biopreparedness training is not optional — it is a core professional obligation. The Center for Preparedness Education supports prehospital providers across Nebraska, the Midwest, and nationally with accredited live courses, exercise support, and continuing education that maps directly to the realities of the field.

Key Takeaways

• BDLS and ADLS are the flagship live courses for EMS/EMT personnel — Basic Disaster Life Support and Advanced Disaster Life Support build the all-hazards competencies that routine EMS continuing education rarely covers.
• Disaster response is a distinct skill set. Mass-casualty triage, surge management, and self-protection in contaminated or austere environments require deliberate training beyond day-to-day patient care.
• Isolation and quarantine operations — especially in rural communities — depend on public safety and EMS personnel who understand legal authorities, PPE, and coordination with public health.
• Biocontainment and special-pathogen transport is a specialized capability; Nebraska Medicine’s Biocontainment Unit is a national resource and a training partner.
• Exercises and drills convert knowledge into performance. Classroom training alone does not build the muscle memory that a real incident demands.
• Continuing education credit and documentation matter for licensure, credentialing, and agency readiness reporting.

Why Disaster Training Is Different for EMS

Everyday EMS practice is built around a single patient, a short scene time, and a receiving hospital that has capacity. Disaster and biopreparedness incidents invert nearly all of those assumptions. You may face dozens or hundreds of patients, limited or delayed transport, hospitals that are themselves overwhelmed or contaminated, and a scene where the hazard is invisible — a biological agent, a chemical plume, or a radiological source.

That inversion is why general EMS continuing education does not substitute for dedicated disaster training. The cognitive load is different, the triage logic is different, and the ethical and legal frameworks — scarce resource allocation, altered standards of care, and provider self-protection — are different.

Courses like BDLS (Basic Disaster Life Support) and ADLS (Advanced Disaster Life Support), developed under the National Disaster Life Support (NDLS) framework and administered through the American Medical Association, are designed specifically to close that gap. They are among the most widely recognized live disaster courses available to prehospital providers, and they are a strong fit for EMS/EMT personnel who want structured, credentialed all-hazards training.

BDLS vs. ADLS: How to Decide

Choosing between the two courses — or taking both — depends on your role, your agency’s expectations, and how much operational depth you need. The table below summarizes the general distinction; confirm current prerequisites and credit details with the Center for Preparedness Education when you register, since course logistics and credit offerings can change.

Consideration	BDLS (Basic)	ADLS (Advanced)
Primary audience	All responders and healthcare personnel	Providers seeking deeper operational and clinical depth
Focus	Core disaster concepts, all-hazards awareness, triage principles	Advanced clinical decision-making, surge operations, incident integration
Typical role fit	EMTs, first responders, support staff, mixed audiences	Paramedics, supervisors, clinical leads, those in command roles
Depth of clinical content	Foundational	Expanded, scenario-driven
Best when	You need a common baseline across a team or agency	You need to lead, teach, or operate in complex incidents

A practical rule of thumb: if your goal is to give an entire squad or shift a shared vocabulary and a common triage framework, start with BDLS. If you are the person who will be making allocation decisions, running the medical branch, or training others, ADLS is the logical next step. Many agencies send a core group through ADLS and use BDLS to bring the broader roster up to a consistent baseline.

Core Competencies Disaster Courses Build

Well-designed disaster training for EMS reinforces a set of competencies that recur across incidents:

• Scene safety and hazard recognition — identifying biological, chemical, radiological, explosive, and natural hazards before committing personnel.
• Mass-casualty triage — applying and reconciling triage systems such as START, JumpSTART, and SALT, and understanding where they agree and diverge.
• Surge and resource management — operating when demand exceeds supply, including the principles behind crisis standards of care.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) — donning and doffing under pressure, and understanding the limits of each level of protection.
• Decontamination — setting up and running a decon corridor, and the sequence of gross versus technical decontamination.
• Communication and incident command — working within the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and integrating with public health and hospitals.
• Behavioral health and resilience — recognizing stress injury in yourself and your crew, and knowing where to find support.

The Center’s Behavioral Health Resources and Comprehensive Resources pages complement this training by pointing providers to ongoing support and reference material.

Isolation, Quarantine, and Rural Public Safety

One of the more specialized — and often overlooked — areas for EMS and public safety is isolation and quarantine (I&Q) operations. During a communicable disease event, EMS and law enforcement may be asked to support movement restrictions, monitor individuals, or assist public health in enforcing orders. This is legally and ethically delicate work, and it looks very different in a rural county than in a metropolitan area.

Rural communities often have limited personnel, long transport distances, and fewer receiving facilities, which means a single case can strain the entire system. Training that addresses I&Q for rural public safety personnel and rural communities helps providers understand:

• The legal basis and limits of isolation and quarantine orders.
• Their role versus the role of public health and law enforcement.
• How to protect themselves and their families while performing these duties.
• How to communicate with a public that may be anxious, skeptical, or resistant.

The Center has offered FEMA-certified courses in this space, including MGT 433 (Isolation and Quarantine for Rural Communities) and MGT 432 (Isolation and Quarantine for Rural Public Safety Personnel). Note that specific course offerings and dates change over time — always check the current Events and Training Programs pages for what is scheduled, and contact the Center directly about availability.

Biocontainment and Special Pathogen Preparedness

Nebraska occupies a distinctive place in national biopreparedness. The Nebraska Medicine Biocontainment Unit is one of the nation’s dedicated high-level isolation units and has been involved in the care of patients with serious communicable diseases, including during the 2014–2016 Ebola response. For EMS providers, this matters in practical terms: a patient with a suspected special pathogen may first be encountered by a prehospital crew, and how that crew recognizes, isolates, and coordinates transport has real consequences.

The Center has partnered with Nebraska Medicine on Biocontainment Unit training delivered alongside its Preparedness Symposia. These sessions give EMS and healthcare personnel exposure to the protocols, PPE, and coordination required for high-consequence pathogens. Even if your agency never transports such a patient, understanding the referral pathway and the receiving unit’s requirements is valuable — and it strengthens the regional response system as a whole.

For broader context on the facilities and system involved, see the Nebraska Medicine facilities overview.

Turning Training into Performance: Exercises and Drills

Knowledge fades; performance under stress is what counts. That is why the Center’s Exercise Services exist alongside its training programs. Exercises range from discussion-based tabletop events to operations-based drills, and each serves a different purpose:

• Tabletops are low-cost, low-risk ways to test plans, surface assumptions, and align partners before anyone moves a truck.
• Functional exercises stress communication, command, and coordination without full field deployment.
• Full-scale exercises test the whole system — triage, treatment, transport, decon, and hospital reception — under realistic conditions.

For EMS agencies, the highest-value exercises are usually those that involve the receiving hospitals and public health partners, because the seams between organizations are where real incidents fail. The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) provides the standard methodology most agencies use to design, conduct, and evaluate these events. If you are planning an exercise, the Center’s Exercise Services Request Form is the starting point for requesting support.

Practical Guidance for EMS Providers and Coordinators

If you are an EMS provider or a training coordinator deciding where to invest limited time and budget, consider this sequence:

1. Establish a baseline. Get your roster through BDLS or an equivalent all-hazards course so everyone shares a common framework.
2. Build depth in your leaders. Send supervisors and clinical leads through ADLS and ICS/NIMS training.
3. Address your specific risks. If you serve a rural area, prioritize I&Q and long-transport planning. If you are near a high-consequence facility, prioritize special pathogen awareness.
4. Exercise what you train. Schedule at least one exercise per year that includes hospital and public health partners.
5. Document everything. Track credits, certificates, and after-action findings — they support licensure, grant reporting, and continuous improvement.

A caveat worth stating plainly: no single course makes an agency prepared. Preparedness is cumulative — training, planning, equipping, exercising, and evaluating, repeated over time. Treat any one course as a building block, not a finish line.

Staying Current

Course schedules, formats, and credit offerings evolve. The most reliable way to stay informed is to monitor the Center’s Events and Training Programs pages, follow the Center on Twitter, and reach out directly with questions about a specific course or your agency’s needs. For national context and standards, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publish guidance that underpins much of the training described here, and the American Medical Association is the home of the National Disaster Life Support course family.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between BDLS and ADLS?

BDLS (Basic Disaster Life Support) provides a foundational, all-hazards overview suitable for a broad range of responders, while ADLS (Advanced Disaster Life Support) goes deeper into clinical decision-making, surge operations, and incident integration for providers who will lead or teach. Many agencies use BDLS to establish a shared baseline and ADLS to develop their leaders.

Who should take disaster life support courses?

They are valuable for EMTs, paramedics, first responders, nurses, physicians, and public health and emergency management personnel. If your role involves responding to, coordinating, or planning for mass-casualty or biological incidents, these courses build competencies that routine continuing education typically does not cover.

Do these courses count toward continuing education?

Disaster life support courses are widely recognized for continuing education and are often accepted toward licensure and credentialing requirements. Because credit offerings and approvals can change, confirm the specific credit available for a given course with the Center for Preparedness Education when you register.

How do I request exercise support for my agency?

The Center offers exercise services ranging from tabletops to full-scale drills. Start by reviewing the Exercise Services page and submitting the Exercise Services Request Form, then discuss your objectives, partners, and timeline with Center staff so the exercise can be designed around your actual risks.

Why is isolation and quarantine training important for EMS and public safety?

During a communicable disease event, EMS and law enforcement may be asked to support movement restrictions or monitoring, which raises legal, ethical, and safety questions. Training helps providers understand their role, the limits of their authority, and how to protect themselves while supporting public health.

Are the listed events and dates still current?

Course offerings and event dates change frequently. The events shown on this page reflect past or historical scheduling; always check the current Events and Training Programs pages or contact the Center directly for the latest schedule and availability.