Elyse

Using the class as a stepping stone... We have a lot of students who take the class to boost their standings to get into Physicians Assistant school. We also gear towards people who need the class to be safety officers in a non medical work place. As for my age... I am a child of an EMT-A and was raised in EMS. I started helping with practical skills exams when I was 10 or so. When I has 14 I had gain enough knowledge from watching my Father and many other EMTs and Paramedics that I respect teach, to start out helping with the skills of some of the classes. I started out taking the the regular time class when I was 16 then switched to the accelerated format when I was 17. I have been certified for almost 2 years now and continue to teach skills to every class I can. Just because I am young does not mean that what I have to say is less important than those who are older them me. I realize that experience comes with age and I am not refuting that. All I am asking is that until you have seen these classes in action keep an open mind...

I have not taken an accelerated Paramedic class, but I did take the 13 day basic class in Indiana. The school that I took it at gears it classes towards people who have a medical background or people who are going to use their certification as a stepping stone towards higher education in medicine. Regardless of how many days your class is everyone is going to spend roughly the same amount of hours in training. I loved the class I was in. I have also assisted in teaching both accelerated and regular time classes in the last 5 years or so and our accelerated students have an extremely high pass rate, 98%. Our regular time classes generally have about a 90% pass rate. I belive that the accelerated format is a very acceptable form of education, It is up to the students to determine if it is the right class for them.

EMT Inc (pelham specialties) in Bloomington Indiana does an accelerated format for both EMT-B and Paramedics. The EMT B class is a 2 week continuous class, you meet everyday any where form 5 to 8 hours a day starting on a Sunday and the students take their National Registry practical skill examination on the 2 Saturdays after that. Clinicals are done during class time at local hospitals and ambulance services. We do one of these classes a month and they fill up pretty fast so if you are interested check out the website @ www.emtinc.net. I am not as knowledgable about the accelerated Paramedic program as we have only done 1 or 2 and I haven't been involved with any of them. There is info on the website though. I took the basic class and thought it was fantastic, though I have been around EMS my whole life, it is a tradition in my family for someone from each generation to be an EMIT. I wouldn't recommend this class for anyone who has never had any background in medicine. The instructors are great, many of them have become "parents" to me and they are very conciencious of how they teach and who teaches. If anyone of yall have heard of our program I would love to hear what you have to say!!