NRCME Training Courses

NRCME Training Courses

The FMCSA created a new program to build a national registry for medical examiners in an effort to make driving safer for commercial bus and truck drivers. Anyone in the commercial driving world will need to go through physicals in an effort to ensure that they are healthy enough to operate trucks or buses. This program aims to ensure safety on the highways by using certified medical examiners to make sure that drivers of commercial vehicles meet certain health standards that have been put in place by the FMCSA.

All of this is to minimize fatal accidents and to improve safety on the highways of the country.

In order to do this, testing and training organizations are needed, and they play a vital role in achieving the goal by educating the medical examiners about the medical standards of FMCSA, while enhancing the public’s understanding of the mental and physical demands of operating a commercial motor vehicle.

Over the next two years, 40,000 medical examiners across the country will be required to complete a training program, then every five years it must be repeated with a refresher training and every 10 years examiners must get recertified.

What Training Organizations are Eligible?

In order for an organization to be eligible, they need to meet the following criteria:

  1. Organizations must undergo the accreditation process by an organization that is nationally recognized.
  2. FMCSA specifications must be met for the current core curriculum to properly train the organization.
  3. Provide training participants with proof of participation.
  4. They must provide a point of contract information for the FMCSA to training participants.

What testing organizations must do to be listed on the National Registry?

In order for an organization to be eligible to be listed as a testing agency on the National Registry, they must meet the following criteria:

  1. They must meet all federally-defined criteria.
  2. They must submit documented policies and procedures for their organization to the FMCSA.
  3. They must apply to be a test delivery organization for the National Registry of the FMCSA.
  4. They must agree to initial security site visits and future reviews through the FMCSA.

Online content

In order to help both training organizations and individuals looking to train, the FMCSA offers training materials online that can be viewed for free. These materials include:

  1. Core curriculum items that provide the outline of the training that examiners will receive through private training providers. These documents also include regulations and related guidance.
  2. Information Manuals for Training Organizations, which provide information on becoming a training provider, as well as about the National Registry program itself.
  3. Sample training that demonstrates one way to cover the eight training topics required by FMCSA.
  4. Complete Guide to Medical Examiner Certification, which introduces examiners to necessary steps to earn FMCSA certificates. The handbook focuses on training and certification training. It also covers how to maintain certification or becoming recertified.
  5. Medical Examiner Handbook, which provides information and guidance to examiners who perform physicals on drivers. The handbook helps the individual determine the fitness of the driver to drive.

Finding a Training Organization

Currently, there are over 250 organizations around the United States that provide some sort of training to individuals who are looking to get the training needed to be medical examiners through the FMCSA. These organizations will vary in what they provide for training. Some are online, some are online and have a classroom, some are only in the classroom and many are self-guided.

In order to find the right training organization near you, you can visit https://nationalregistry.fmcsa.dot.gov/NRPublicUI/TrainingOrgList.seam

Finding a Testing Organization

In order to find a testing organization, you visit https://nationalregistry.fmcsa.dot.gov/NRPublicUI/home.seam and you can search by your community’s name to find any testing agency within 10 miles to 500 miles of you, anywhere in the United States.

With thousands of medical examiners needing certification in the next two years alone, space will be limited with some organizations. That is why it is best to contact organizations immediately if you want to be certified. That way, you can get your certification completed.

The new rules through the National Registry will help drivers be safer on the road, and give the public the knowledge that those driving on the road commercially are fit to do so.