uncle_salty

http://www.rollwithit.com Here's another nail in the coffin that's just bound to attract high-quality individuals to EMS.

Since it's your ambulace, why don't you take personal responsibility in getting out there and cleaning it. A couple extra semesters of part time night classes never glossed over an overblown sense of superiority. You are the basic. The paramedic is the basic with advanced skills. Both of you are emergency medical technicians. Got it? Basics often receive better treatment from non-ems providers than their own. It's a real shame. There are paramedics who decry the basic's education. These same paramedics precept basic students regularly. They have a chance to be the best mentor they can be. So they piss that opportunity away, being evasive and creating intimidating atmospheres by exploiting the clinical student as their housekeeper. Then run to places like emtcity to spit more venom at the basics. You can't complain about the problem when you're either a big part of it, or take a idle approach torwards fixing it when given a real chance to make a measureable difference.

I bet you've just been WAITING to unleash that little gem, haven't you? We could look at in terms of semesters. In consideration of the two and six month paramedic programs spreading like wildfire I guess I could become a paramedic quicker than a pedicurist. Or a medical records transcriptionist. Or an administrative secretary. Or maybe we could consider quality of education. So I guess one day when a loved one of yours needs resuscitation in a remote cotton patch in nowhere, texas where ALS is inconceivable, you can send for the nail technicians.

Oh dusty just likes to go the extremes of both levels of training. By his indication all basics are first-aid providers fresh out of a two-weeker, all the while he and his ultra-hip paramedic friends have attended years of advanced scientific didactic lecture at the university level. So understand this: The real truth is that the gap isn't quite as wide as he may lead you to believe. The vast majority of basic programs in the U.S. well exceed the minimum DOT requirements. Most basic courses are 5-month (one semester) programs in which classes are attended 2-4 days a week usually in a community college setting. Add a couple or so semsters of mostly skills/meds training and maybe a A&P class and you've got the typical paramedic. There are exceptions to the rule on both ends of EMS, therein lies the two-week EMT bootcamp - but not without consideration of Illinois' brand spankin' new two-month paramedic course, so do not be deceived into believing the excepetions have become the rule. His apprecation of the cost is spot on, and the reason the basic classes stay full is because that is foundation of all paramedicine in this country, being a mandatory prerequisite to more advanced programs. Now that the playing field is just a little more level, discuss.