ABOUT THE DENVER HEALTH PARAMEDIC SCHOOL
Each year up to 26 students begin a rigorous 12-month course of study leading to a certificate of completion and eligibility to sit for the NREMT-P written and practical exams. The application and admission process is competitive and top graduates are considered for employment at the Denver Health Paramedic Division. The course consists of over 1300 hours of preparation and training and is comprised of three phases:
Phase 1 - Didactic Phase
The program curriculum is based on the 1999 D.O.T. EMT-Paramedic curriculum. During this classroom phase, students generally meet on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings from 6pm-10pm. Some Saturday day classes are required. The didactic phase runs from September to May on the Denver Health Campus and is primarily taught by Denver Health emergency department physicians.
Phase 2 - Clinical Rotations
Phase 2 clinical rotations are run concurrently with the didactic phase during the year. All students participate in direct patient care in a variety of urban, high patient volume locations, including: 
- Denver Health Emergency Department
- Denver Health Operating Room
- Denver Health Medical Intensive Care Unit
- Denver Health Respiratory Therapy
- University Hospital Cardiac Cath Lab
- Children's Hospital Emergency Department
- Denver Health Pediatric Urgent Care Center
- Denver Health Labor & Delivery Deck
- Denver Health Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Phase 3 - Field Internship
The field internship involves the practical application of didactic knowledge, psychomotor skills and clinical instruction. The field internship represents both an instructional and evaluative phase of the program. During the field internship, the student will be under direct supervision by a preceptor. The field internship phase will be a 30 hour a week commitment.
Pursuant to the State of Colorado Paramedic Training Center rules and regulations, students are required to complete 500 hours of field internship time. The first 100 hours will be done concurrently with the first two phases, and the remaining 400 hours commence immediately after the end of the didactic phase.
All of these hours will be spent on a Denver Health Paramedic Division ambulance. Denver Health Paramedic Division is part of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority, and is the sole provider of 911 EMS for the City and County of Denver, Colorado. Our system has a peak staffing of 23 dual paramedic ambulances that are dynamically dispersed throughout the City and County, responding to over 80,000 calls per year. Approximately 45% of these returns come back to Denver's only Academic Level 1 Truama Center- Denver Health Medical Center (formerly Denver General Hospital), which is our base hospital. The remaining transports go to a system of 12 other "911 participating" hospitals in the Denver metro area.