[japoneez]

hello all i've recently completed the EMT course and am now NREMT certified. i look forward to preparing myself to get into paramedic school and know that i should be taking prep courses such as chemistry, anatomy, physiology, acls and such. i'm curious whether or not there's a certain order you guys would recommend i take these courses to better understand each course? any feedback would be appreciated, thanks!

i'm sure i left out some courses on the list above but if you recommend anything else please let me know

[kiwimedic]

Anatomy + Physiology I & II with lab
Chemistry
Pharmacology
Scientific research methods
English / interpersonal communications

[WelshMedic]

Psychology is also a good class to follow. Preferably psychology of the ill person, but that's not available everywhere.

Good Luck!

WM

[tcripp]

I'd be curiou to know what classes your program recommends? What type of program are you in? Is this through a community college, a fast paced program, online? How long is your program?

[Dustdevil]

kiwimedic, on 10 March 2010 - 05:16 AM, said:

English / interpersonal communications

Definitely. You'll need to find the shift key on your computer and learn how to spell "preparation" before you hit the job market. If you're in California, I'd get some Spanish behind me too. All the Asians tend to assimilate and learn English. Few of the Mexicans seem to. And they will represent a large percentage of your patient load.

WelshMedic, on 10 March 2010 - 12:51 PM, said:

Psychology is also a good class to follow.

It's more than good. It is absolutely essential to competent professional practice. Only a small percentage of your patients will require medical intervention from you. But every single one of them will require you to communicate effectively with them, understand their psychological state of being, and respond appropriately to it. Intro Psych, Developmental Psych, and Abnormal Psych are minimum requirements for a well rounded medic, and I hesitate to hire anyone without them. Sociology too. The difference between medics who have those, and those who do not, is blatantly evident.

An above average mastery of elementary algebra is necessary, or you will absolutely fall on your face as a medic. If you already have that (as some HS grads do), then statistics is an excellent next step.

[CBEMT]

Dustdevil, on 10 March 2010 - 11:34 PM, said:

Sociology too.

Lol. The only thing I "learned" from Sociology is that Michael Moore rulez (thankfully the only movie we had to sit through was Roger and Me), and everything is the white guy's fault (at least, that's what I assume I was supposed to gather from our viewing of Do the Right Thing).

[Dustdevil]

Oh geeze... well, that's the risk you run in that field. I went to undergrad at a university that had a huge, well known grad school of social work, and the atmosphere of that was palpable. Lots of fat lesbians and old guys with grey ponytails running around campus. I remember them being incensed almost to the point of rioting both times that Reagan won. I can only imagine how horrible the Sociology section there must have been. Luckily, I didn't take sociology until nursing school, where the instructor was actually very good, and didn't have a heavy-handed social agenda with her curriculum.

But if you can separate the preaching from the teaching, there is a wealth of very valuable knowledge to be had from an intro sociology course. Most of us have a decent understanding of only the psycho-socio-economic lifestyle we grew up in. Getting an educated glimpse into all those others that we deal with is immensely beneficial to our ability to relate to them when caring for them.